ZIMBABWE's senior women cricket team begin their African Games campaign with a date against Rwanda Women as cricket debuts at the Africa Games Championships in Accra, Ghana this morning.
Former Lady Chevrons assistant coach, now Rwanda Woman head coach, Leonard Nhamburo is relishing today’s encounter with his former team.
Nhamburo who guided Namibia to a second place finish during the ICC Africa Women Qualifiers at Harare Sports Club in 2019 said they have been training hard for these games and are ready to take on their opponent.
“Obviously these games mean a lot. The more tournaments we play the better. Our teams in the region improve; so credit to the organisers for including cricket in these games, it's been long over due," Nhamburo told NewsDay Sport yesterday.
"We just need to go out there and play the best cricket that we have been preparing for, playing according to our strengths that is what we are looking forward to do. We just need to play good cricket and see how it goes. It's not Zimbabwe's right that they go to a tournament and they are given the rights to win any tournament. They have to play good cricket and every team coming here is coming there to play good cricket. If they (Zimbabwe) don't play good cricket, definitely they will be exposed.”
Two matches, a clash between South Africa against Namibia and Tanzania taking on Nigeria at 9:30am in the morning, will precede the Zimbabwe versus Rwanda game.
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The Zimbabwe encounter against their East African counterparts is slated for 1:50pm and will run concurrently with the match between Uganda and Kenya. Zimbabwe are in Group B together with Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda.
The Mary-Anne Musonda-captained side took a full strength side to Ghana as they are using these games as their final round of preparations for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Global Qualifiers.
Vice captain Josephine Nkomo and wicketkeeper batter Modester Mupachikwa, who missed the home series against Ireland due to club commitments in Australia, are back in the fold. Audrey Mazvishaya and Sharne Mayers are also part of the squad after recovering from injuries.