THE Zimbabwe Senior Women’s Cricket team arrived in Botswana on Tuesday and second groups are expected to join them this afternoon for the ICC Women’s T20 Africa Qualifiers in Botswana scheduled for September 9-19.
Having played quality games against the visiting Thailand Women in the just ended four-match Unofficial One Dayers and three T20Is, albeit in a draw and 1-2 series defeat respectively, the girls go into Botswana with their heads high.
This is mainly because the team had proper preparations before the home series against the Asian side. Zimbabwe had also hosted a strong South Africa Emerging Women in Bulawayo.
The team travels out in two batches. The first group comprises 12 players set to leave tomorrow on Tuesday. The second group, made up of the technical team and two players, fly out on Wednesday for the African Safari.
Zimbabwe are in Group A that includes hosts Botswana, Eswatini (Swaziland), Mozambique, Rwanda and Tanzania. Group B comprises Cameroon, Namibia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Uganda.
Lady Chevrons Head Coach, Adam Chifo is content with the preparations accorded to the team. He has rallied the girls to hold their own in the 11-team tournament in Botswana, where only the winners will progress to the next stage of the competition, the Global Qualifiers.
“It was quite an eye-opener for us as we got to really assess our current position, and obviously, we now know what areas we need to put more effort in as we try to improve ourselves,” Chifo told
EnterSportNews yesterday.
“We were tested in all departments, and one thing we learnt is not to take any team lightly. We need to be hungrier and improve a lot as we prepare for the qualifiers in November.”
Zimbabwe were recently awarded participating hosts for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup that is scheduled to run from the End of November to early December.
“We have Africa Qualifiers this week in Botswana, and when we come back, we will host Ireland Women for an ODI series and maybe one of the teams coming for the Qualifiers a bit earlier than the other teams,” he added.
“We all know what it is at stake in Botswana, that cannot be over emphasised. The girls are self-motivated to reach the T20I Globals and make up for the disappointment two years ago where the team failed to participate in the Global tournament in Scotland despite winning the Africa Qualifiers edition that we hosted following Zimbabwe’s suspension by the ICC.”
