Author: SULEIMAN JONGO
AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE Tanzania Cricket Association (TCA) has said the ongoing grassroots development programmes will help the formation of strong girls and boys’ teams ahead of various domestic and international assignments.
Tanzania is now focusing on best performances at forthcoming ICC and regional tournaments after flopping in the previous years.
This follows a continued efforts made by TCA leaderhip under Premji Pindoria after among other initiatives, refurbishing various regional stadia and hiring of a Kenyan Steve Tikolo who coordinates with development officers to see the ball rolling.
The local ladies will next year be involved in the ICC-Africa Regional T20 and the junior programmes will be helpful to produce competent cricketers who will in years to come be good ambassadors.
Khalil Rehemtullah, one of the association’s development officers said yesterday that the staging of the so-called ‘Chanzo Cricket tournaments’ is one of the ongoing efforts to scout and nurture talents of young boys and girls from primary schools. He said there will be two major Chanzo taking place in Dar es Salaam and Chanika in Coast region to involve 112 teams in both girls and boys disciplines.
Dar es Salaam started hosting the weekly Chanzo tournament yesterday at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) while Chanika will hold its edition today at Chanika and Tungini Primary School grounds, respectively.
“We feel obliged to promote the young cricketers in primary schools because they are future stars and country’s flag bearers in major international assignments,” said Rehemtullah.
He said the pupils who will make outstanding performances will be enrolled in the TCA Junior league as a major step for them to earn calls in the junior and senior national teams in the coming days. Chanzo Cricket tournament was initiated by TCA some years ago targeting mainly primary school pupils by giving them basic rules and principles of cricket.
The same programmes are run by TCA in upcountry regions whereby pupils and children are involved in the training and competitions to attract them to the fast growing sport in the country.
