ZIMBABWE senior men’s cricket head coach Justin Sammons has praised the dedicated local fan base, promising to reward their loyalty with impressive performances, starting with the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Sub Regional Africa Qualifier B, which kicks off in Nairobi, Kenya, tomorrow.
The Chevrons were forced to slide deeper into the regional qualifiers, where they will try to mount a spirited campaign back into the final qualifying round for the 2026 T20 World Cup.
This tournament will see the locals brush shoulders with Seychelles in their opening match tomorrow.
A clash against hosts Kenya follows on Sunday.
On Tuesday, they date The Gambia, then on Wednesday, they tussle it out with neighbours, Mozambique, and wind off their group stage games against Rwanda on Thursday.
The top two teams progress to the final Regional Qualifiers that will feature Uganda and Namibia as well as four other teams from Regional Qualifier A and C.
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“I have really been blown away by the support from the Zimbabwean public,” Sammons told NewsDay Sport.
“The fans are incredible, the players really feel that they feed off their energy and we just ask if they (can) continue to do that and we will do our best to obviously make them proud.”
Zimbabwe international T20 cricket captain Sikandar Raza will lead a cast of both experienced and emerging talent.
The composition of the team excites Sammons.
“I’m very excited about the youngsters in the squad and it’s obviously nice that we do have a little bit of experience in and around them for them to feed off of,” Raza said.
“I think they bring a great energy that obviously sort of resonates throughout the squad. And then obviously it’s nice to be able to balance it with those senior players, sort of a little bit more experience. But I think it’s a lovely blend.”