Africa-Press – Tanzania. IT was highly motivating to see Tanzanian cricket making a giant leap at the global level when the women’s team won bronze in in the just ended ICC T-20 World Cup African qualifiers.
The gallant Tanzanian ladies won the medal after finishing third overall in the tournament that drew 11 countries of East, Southern and Western parts of Africa.
The ladies won the third place prize after getting better of Uganda with a nine-wicket victory.
Also deserving kudos are Fatuma Kibasu who was the tournament’s top scorer, having netted 280 runs, and Monica Paschal and Patrice Kamunya who also did a commendable job in helping the team succeed.
Tanzania ended with a bronze, but the real target was a gold medal which would have enabled the team to qualify for the global level finals. Zimbabwe will represent Africa in the finals after beating Namibia by 13 runs in the final at Gaborone oval.
The team needs further polish to reach that desired global status, and to attain this, TCA, the cricket governing body, must observe vigilance in their renewed efforts to revive cricket from the grassroots level.
We laud TCA for the team’s achievement in Botswana, and that proves that its commitment to upgrade cricket standard in Tanzania is beginning to yield fruits.
We insist on vigilance because TCA had similar projects two decades ago, which sports enthusiasts labelled an exemplary effort in achievement, but as years went by, the sport became redundant until recently when the present leadership took over.
TCA needs to take up cricket development at grassroots level seriously if it wants it to reclaim its lost glory in the near future, but it must ensure it is among sports being played in either Inter-Primary School Games (Umitashumta) or Inter-Secondary School Games.
Also, we would like to advise the cricket governing body and its associates to prepare a cricket curriculum which can be used by sports teachers who will run grassroots projects.
From here on, TCA and the entire cricket fraternity have to remain focused on development while sorting out all that impeded the projects some years back.
We believe that the past TCA leadership didn’t do one or two things right. Selection of teams and hiring of coaches are some of the aspects that the present leadership of TCA has considered.
To achieve the goal, TCA must invest in cricket development on young talents who will help to strengthen the national team in future, but this can’t be achieved if the projects are not properly implemented.
We end up insisting that investing in young talents is very vital as it is the foundation of any game or sport in the world, as they have the opportunity to learn, understand and become better.
