AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE Tanzania Cricket Association (TCA) is looking forward to invest in cricket development of young talents, who will help strengthen the national team in future.
Speaking on the TCA plans, TCA Development Officer, Hamis Abdallah said the plan is to revitalize the youth development programme that was perfectly implemented from 2000 to 2010.
However, cricket, in the recent years seems to have become either stagnant or going anti-clockwise according to the rankings of the International Cricket council (ICC).
Tanzania Cricket level has almost nose-dived from 2nd position ten years ago to 5th today something that makes it lose the appeal it enjoyed during its revival era in early 2000s.
Cricket, one of the sports that looked as an exemplary in achievement, has been redundant in the recent years as it seemed no serious attempts to rejuvenate it. This is why Abdallah said they newly installed leadership is committed to turn things around.
He said the TCA will continue to fully engage national team Head Coach Steve Tikolo, when taking up cricket development at grassroots level since it plays a pivotal role in making the game reclaim its lost glory.
“We are now trying to improve the cricket facilities that will allow players to undergo training in good condition and high performance,” he said.
He noted that the ultimate goal of this investment is to push cricket in Tanzania at international level and be played professionally.
“Investing in young talents is important as it is the foundation of any game or sports in the world…young players have the ability to learn, understand and become better,” Abdallah said.
He added; “Having facilities is not the only way for players to become better but with more games to test what you have learned makes you better.
“The second thing is to play more games, back then we used to play in East African Tournaments and it made us good players.
Young players have to play more games to develop their ability by learning from their opponents and gain experience,” he said.
According to TCA Communication Officer, Atif Salim the development programme functions in seven regions, that are; Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Mwanza, Morogoro, Geita, Tanga and Dodoma.
He also added that they have plans to extend the programme in other regions, where they plan to start one in Moshi this year but due to the coronavirus pandemic, they will we sit and evaluate the situation.
Cricket, like other sports that exhort young athletes to become good players as well as good human beings, needs a serious revival that demands everyone’s efforts, not TCA alone.
