By Bockarie Allieu
September 08, 2020, (SALONE TIMES)
FREETOWN – National U-19 Cricket team was set to start training this month for their upcoming tournament next year March or April.
The U-19 world cup qualifying tournament was to take place this year but was postponed due to the COVID19 outbreak in the world.
But recently, ICC communicated to all their members that all pending competitions will take place next year.
In the release, they informed them on how the players and other contingent members will be tested before departure and on arrival.
Talking to SALONE TIMES Sports, the U-19 Team Manager Daniel Koroma who is also Secretary General of the Cricket association said they were planning to start fitness training this month.
This, he said will let the players to be physically fit as they have sat down for so many months doing nothing due to the ban on all sports activities.
Daniel went on that other countries which they will be competing with are now far ahead with preparation. Notwithstanding, he said while waiting for the government to lift the ban they have communicated to all the U-19 players to embark on self-training like jogging and press ups.
Beside the above, he said it takes long procedure to select a team for tournament and that they are going to invite a large number to allow them to train for a month or two before they will start to cut down the number.
This, he said will continue until they reach the time of selecting the final number of players for the team. Daniel said the training will involve taking the players to the gym and inviting an athletics coach for their runs between wickets. He expressed hope that government will lift the ban soon so that they will get ample time to prepare