BY BOCKARIE ALIEU
232NEWS, FREETOWN
The senior female national Cricket team (Female Patriots) has arrived in Gaborone Botswana on the 31st August 2023. The delegation departed Sierra Leone on Wednesday 30 August to take part in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup qualifier in Botswana.
In all, 8 countries will be taking part in the division2 qualifier with the two countries qualifying for the division1 qualifier in Uganda in December 2023.
The participating teams will access the playing grounds tomorrow followed by captains shooting with the trophy and press conference.
The competition will start on Saturday 2nd September 2023 at two venues in the morning and in the afternoon. Sierra Leone falls in group B together with Cameroon, Mozambique and Eswatini. In group A, is Kenya, Botswana, Malawi and Lesotho. The tournament will kick-off in the morning hours with two matches at BCA1 and BCA 2. At BCA1, the host country Botswana will host Kenya in a very tight match while at BCA2 from the same Group A Malawi will host Lesotho.
In the afternoon at 2:00 pm Mozambique will host Eswatini at BCA1 and at BCA2 Sierra Leone will host Cameroon.
The tournament will continue on Sunday with Sierra Leone engaging Mozambique in a battle for supremacy. The tournament will be played under a T20 over format with two groups of 4 teams playing round-robin format.
The top two teams from each group will qualify for the semi-final stage. In the Semi-final stage, the two winners will automatically qualify for the ICC T20 Women’s World Cup Global qualifier to be held in 2024.
