*Botswana Cricket Kalahari Women’s T20 International Tourney kicks off
The revamped Botswana Cricket Association (BCA) Women’s annual tournament is back after a 10-year hiatus.
The action started this morning (Monday 22 April) at the BCA Oval, with the tournie taking place under a new name, ‘Botswana Cricket Kalahari Women’s T20 International Tournament’.
Four African nations: Rwanda, Lesotho, Mozambique and the hosts will be competing until the 28th of this month.
The week-long competition returns with exciting changes for both teams and players as it is now sanctioned by the International Cricket Commission (ICC), which means the matches count towards the ICC Women’s T20 rankings.
Botswana are ranked 41st in the world, with Rwanda 27th, Mozambique 47th and Lesotho currently unranked.
BCA Vice President, Sumod Damudar told Voice Sport the competition will be played in a double round robin format, with all teams having the opportunity to play each other twice.
“We decided to use a round robin to provide more matches which will afford the players a platform to improve with the games and also for the teams to improve their rankings in ICC T20 Women’s rankings,” stated Damudar.
On the team’s preparedness ahead of the long awaited tournament, the BCA Vice President said the association has done all in its power to ensure the ladies were ready to compete.
“We did whatever we can as the BCA to make sure that the team is ready for the tournament, it’s now all left to the players,” he said.
Speaking to Voice Sport, the ladies coach, Stanley Timoni was confident his team can go all the way and win the tournament.
“The team has been training for the past four weeks, and also had the pleasure of hosting experienced coaches from India Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) who took the ladies through their paces. I hope the skills we learned from them will come in handy throughout this tournament, and maybe help us win it,” he said.
The Herons start their campaign with two matches on Day One, opening up against Lesotho in the morning and then taking on Mozambique after lunch.