NATIONAL cricket team has stepped up training in preparations for 2020 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier in South Africa, from April 25th to May 4th this year.
Head Coach Steve Tikolo has already named a provisional squad of 22 players, who will be trimmed to 18 players that will camp in Zimbabwe from March 14th–21th this year, to fine tune for the qualifiers.
The provisional squad includes; Abhik Patwa, Kasimu Nassoro, Riziki Kiseto, Jitin Singh, Jatin Darji, Zafar Khan, Abdallah Jabir, Ivan Ismail, Mohammed Ali, Mohamed Omari and Ally Mpeka.
Others are Nasibu Kelvin, Salumu Jumbe, Zamoyoni Ramadhani, Harsheed Chohan, Athumani Siwa, Salmin Said, Jumanne Masquater, Nassoro Zahoro, Issa Kikasi, Athumani Kakonzi and Ashish Kamania.
The team will play a trial T/20 game today at Annadil Burhani Ground in Dar es Salaam, in which, the team will be broken into two — Abhik’s Red vs Kassim’s Blues.
Abhik Patwa and Kassim Nassoro are among the long serving national team players.
In Zimbabwe, the coach will trim the squad to remain with 16 players, who will represent Tanzania in the qualification games.
Tikolo believes that the Zimbabwe camp will help improve the quality of his team as they will also play several warm up matches including against host Zimbabwe.
“Zimbabwe is one of the best teams in the African Region and we believe practicing with the Zimbabwean teams will improve my squad,” said Tikolo.
The Africa qualifier will have two sub-regional groups, with the top two teams in each group progressing to the Regional final.
According to the Tanzania Cricket Association (TCA) Communication Officer, Atif Salim, teams which have already qualified for the Regional final includes Kenya, Nigeria, and Namibia as they are the highestranked teams.
Tanzania is placed on Group A with Mozambique, Botswana, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, and St.Helena, while Group B teams are Uganda, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, Seychelles, and eSwatini.
Meanwhile, Paul Manyanda Memorial Pro-10 Cricket League will continue tomorrow with six matches on card to be played at the Annadil Burhani ground in Dar es Salaam. Four matches will be staged in Division B and two others will go for Division C.
The first match in Division B will pit DCC and Lions CC, while ESTIM will face Union Sports Club. MCC will also play ESTIM on the same day, while MCC will later play another game against K&P Construction.
In Division C Tamil Nadu Sports Club will face Royal Strikers CC, while Lion Castilla will play against Sandy’s Super Strikers.
