The Sunday Mail
Brighton Zhawi
THE Zimbabwe cricket women’s team will not only be playing for a berth at the World T20 Qualifier, but also for all Zimbabwean mothers.
The Africa World T20 Qualifier starts today and the tournament’s final, slated for May 12, coincides with Mother’s Day.
And as such the Lady Chevrons have decided to dedicate the tournament to mothers everywhere in the country. Action starts today with Zimbabwe taking on Mozambique at Old Hararians. Zimbabwe is determined to be there on May 12 when two finalists battle it out for the solo ticket to Scotland, who will host the World T20 Qualifier in September. “A great (Mother’s Day) present would be for us to be in the final and win it for all the women in Zimbabwe.
“We want to represent Africa and make all the women happy on the day,” said Zimbabwe skipper Mary-Anne Musonda.
Zimbabwe’s head coach Adam “Skies” Chifo also spoke on the significance of playing for Zimbabwean mothers.
“Women’s cricket is on the rise…it can’t get any better than winning the final on Mother’s Day. We want to represent and win it for all the Zimbabwean women out there,” he said. Confidence is palpable amongst the Zimbabwe side and Chifo attributes that to sound preparations.
“Clarity has brought some form of accountability and I’m sure that’s why you have seen quite a significant change in the team,” he said.
“It’s a very important tournament, as it’s our pathway to the global qualifiers and ultimately to the World Cup,” he said.
Chifo added, “We have been preparing for quite some time now, during which we toured Namibia, we had a productive camp and two weeks ago we went to Uganda. We have been playing against academies and age group boys teams.
“Winning four out of four (in a Tri-series in Uganda recently) was a very big boost in terms of confidence, self-belief and team bonding,” said Chifo.
Chifo revealed that at some point his team was diffident.
“They were instances were some people didn’t believe in us, self-belief was low but winning got us into the right frame of mind. We have re-established our vision, our goals and basically how we go about our business. We have also clarified roles on individual players so everybody is clear of what is expected of them if they are selected in the team,” he said. Zimbabwe batsmen Vusimusi Sibanda and national team analyst Stanley Chioza have been seen in the women’s team camp.
“Zimbabwe Cricket have tried to assist us in every way possible and one of their moves was bringing in Vusi as a batting consultant.
“Also we got Stanley Chioza, who is reputable analyst and lent us his expertise.
“Results speak for themselves,” explained Chifo.
Zimbabwe is in group A where after today’s opener they will play Tanzania at Takashinga Cricket Club on May 6, and then Rwanda at OH on May 9.
The concludes their group matches with a clash against Nigeria on May 11 at OH.
The other group features Namibia, Uganda, Kenya and Sierra Leone. The two group winners will play in the final, which determines who qualifies to the global WT20 qualifiers.
