The road to Bangladesh: Lady Chevrons ready for qualifiers

Don Makanyanga

Sports Reporter

ZIMBABWE’S senior women’s cricket team, the Lady Chevrons, will seek to correct their past mistakes at global qualifiers when they battle it out with nine other countries for the two remaining spots at the ICC Women T20 World Cup.

The Lady Chevrons missed out on the last edition of the T20 World Cup with a painful four-run loss against Ireland in the semi-finals.

With the memories of the painful defeat and World Cup miss still fresh, the Lady Chevrons will go out to avoid a repeat when they play in this year’s edition of qualifiers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) starting this Thursday.

The women’s national team vice-captain, Josephine Nkomo, recounted the painful experience of the last edition.

“I was gutted, after all the hard work we got so close, but not over the line,” she said.

“I am certain the pain of coming last in a tournament is much better than getting that close and missing out on an opportunity like that.”

As they try to avoid a repeat of the last edition, Nkomo has rallied her troops to be at their best in their quest for qualification for this year’s edition of the World Cup, to be hosted by Bangladesh later this year.

“I cannot do so much, but as a team we can move mountains,” she said. “We cannot rewrite the past as a team, but we can certainly write and shape how we want our future to look like and the World Cup is a life-changing opportunity for us as a team.

“We know what happens when we don’t qualify, but we don’t know what happens when we do qualify.

“All we know is that it is life-changing for the better for women’s cricket in the country.”

Nkomo is hoping that senior players, who were part of the team that missed out in the last edition, learn from their past mistakes, while the new ones will be driven by hunger for success.

“I learned my lesson. I know the pain and heartbreak and wouldn’t want to go back there,” she said.

“I have dusted myself and all I can do is give it my all and make sure that history does not repeat itself.

“And my word to the upcoming players has been: ‘Let’s grab the opportunity; let it not slip this time.’ We have what it takes, we just have to show up and execute.”

Zimbabwe are in Group B of the qualifiers with Ireland, Netherlands, the UAE and Vanuatu.

The top two teams will progress to the semi-finals, where the finalists automatically qualify for the World Cup.

Zimbabwe begin their quest for qualification with a date against Vanuatu on Thursday.

They will play their second match two days later against hosts UAE, before playing rivals Ireland on April 29.

They conclude their group matches with a date against Netherlands on May 1.