By Bockarie Allieu
The Sierra Leone Men’s national Cricket national team are in qualifying C zone for the Africa zonal ICC W/C Tournament. Six countries will be battling in Abuja Nigeria for two spaces to join the other qualifiers for the final stage in the Africa W/C qualifier.
Among the six countries are the host country Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Botswana, Ivory Coast, Eswatini and St. Helena. The Cricket nations in Africa were divided into three qualifying zones A, B and C.
The two qualifiers from each zone will join Uganda and Namibia for the regional tournament with the date yet to announce. Already from zone A, Tanzania and Malawi have qualified awaiting for the other qualifiers.
Zone B is ongoing while the Zone C qualifier will kick-off on Saturday 23rd November 2024. The participating teams will arrive in Abuja on the 21st November 2024 and they will train on Friday 22nd November 2024.
Sierra Leone will start its World Cup qualifying campaign against Ivory Coast on the opening day in the morning hours. On the same day, Eswatini will engage Botswana in the afternoon.
On the second day, Sierra Leone will lock horns with Botswana and on the third day, St. Helena will host Sierra Leone in the morning hours.
Sierra Leone will battle with Nigeria on Wednesday 27th November 2024. Sierra Leone will play their last group stage match on Thursday against Eswatini.
After the last matches, the top two countries will automatically qualify for the zonal final tournament. Sierra Leone started the preparation with over 30 players which have been shortlisted to 23 players.
The 23 players will be later shortlisted to 17 players. Out of the 17 players 14 players will travel to Nigeria while the three remaining players will be on the standby.
According to the board Sierra Leone will be also taking part in the West Africa Championship that will be hosted in Lagos at the TBS Oval.
In this case, the board has said a player that do not perform well in the W/C qualifier will be replaced with one or two of the players that were on the standby.
The head coach of the team Alie John Kamara has assured fans that they will qualify from the group base on what he has seen during the training and the trials.
Besides, she said they will top the group and return home with champion trophy. Winning the champion trophy, he said will motivate them to also lift the West Africa Champion trophy in Lagos.
The board has also promised the team that there will be an additional bonus should they lift the two trophies if the government provides funds for the two tournaments.
