BY PATIENCE LEPHOGOLE
After Botswana was unbeaten at the Sub-Regional cricket qualifiers she hosted last October and qualified with Namibia, a window of opportunity has opened for the team to prove itself at the next phase of qualifiers.
Uganda will play host for the above tournament to be contested among 6 nations, namely, Botswana, Namibia, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya & Uganda. The tournament will be held from May 19th to the 24th, 2019.
This has been confirmed by Sumod Damodar who is the Secretary ÔÇô Fixtures & Publicity for Botswana Cricket Association (BCA). He further revealed that from the six nations, only two teams will qualify for the ICC Men’s T20 world cup global qualifier, which will be held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in October/November 2019.
Damodar said: “The team has prepared as well as possible under the given circumstances with games against the Silicone Valley X-Factors from California, USA and Tuskers from Zimbabwe. They have been in regular training for the past few months, with weekly schedules.”
He further highlighted that two teams will qualify from the tournament in Kampala to the Global Qualifiers to be played in UAE in October/November, which will be a 14 team event from which 6 teams will qualify for the T20 World Cup in Australia in 2020.
“We have as a good a chance as any of the other teams playing and the unbeaten record going into this tournament should give us an edge,” opined Damodar.
The Minister of Youth, Sports, Culture and Empowerment, Honorable Tshekedi Khama met the team at the BCA oval this past week prior to their departure to wish them well during the tournament.
The Botswana National Men’s team flew out to Kampala on May 16th at 12pm from Sir Seretse Khama Airport )SSKA), to contest for one of two spots that are available for further qualification to the Global Qualifiers scheduled for this year.
Botswana will kick start the tournament by facing Namibia on the 19th, then will play Uganda on the 20th, they will battle it out with Nigeria on the 21st before having a rest day on the 22nd of May. The team will on the 23rd play against Kenya, then lock horns with Ghana on the 24th, whereby after playing all teams their fate will be decided.
