By Bockarie Allieu
FREETOWN, June 3 (SALONE TIMES) –The Tournament Committee of the World Cricket body the International Cricket Council (ICC) has released fixtures for the qualification of the Men’s T2O World Cup qualifying for West Indies and USA in 2024. The road to the above tournament starts with continental competitions divided into sub regions.
In Africa, the teams in the qualifying stage are divided into two groups. Sierra Leone falls in SRQ B in the Africa qualifying together with 6 other countries; Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, St. Helena, Seychelles and Tanzania. Among the seven countries two are to qualify to the next stage of the tournament. In SRQ A are Cameroon, Eswatini, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya Lesotho and Malawi. Both qualification will be hosted in Rwanda from November to December 2022. The Sub Region A qualifying will start on the 15th -24TH November 2022 and the sub region B qualifying will start on the 30th November 2022 and will end on the 6th December 2022.
According to the Chairman of the Sierra Leone Cricket Board, the board members will be meeting soon to put plans in place for the above tournament. According to him they have less time to prepare as the raining season has already come. He went on that the above tournament is a global tournament as such they are going to start preparation earlier by making use of the days when there will be good weather. He said the advantage of it all is that the premier league has just come to an end and that they are going to select players who perform well in the just concluded premier league. The appointment of the technical team that will take care of the team will be done soon, said the chairman. The Chairman called on all the players both young and senior players to take their trainings seriously as the selection for the final list of players will be done purely on merit. The U-19 Boys and Girls are also preparing for ICC the U-19 tournament for both teams in September this year. In all they are now preparing for three tournaments and the Chairman said if there is enough fund available the senior male team will travel to Nigeria for the T20 Series that Nigeria will be hosting in November. They will also use the opportunity to camp in Nigeria or in South Africa and depart from there to Rwanda if the funds available. The Chairman called on the government and business houses to help them with fund as he is sure Sierra Leone has the team to qualify for the World Cup and the U-19 World Cup.
