Tanzania upbeat to sparkle in T20 World Cup qualifiers

THE national cricket team captain Abhik Patwa believes that Tanzania will sparkle in the forthcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifiers to begin on December 1st in the Rwandan capital, Kigali.

Speaking before their departure to Kigali, Patwa who has a vast experience in the international cricket, said that they had an intensive training in Dar es Salaam for more that two weeks ahead of the event.

“We are physically and mentally ready for the event,”

” We are familiar with most of the teams that we are going to face, knowing in their minds that Tanzania is going to compete as serious contenders and not just a mere participant,” said Patwa.

He was supported by one of the valuable batsman Kassim Nassoro who said that they are aiming for nothing short of a victory.

“We are all set for the event, ready to face our opponents bravely,” said Nassoro with a vast experience in World Cup Africa Qualifiers as well as Africa T20 tournaments.

The team is under Kenyan World Cup experienced former player, Jimmy Kamande whose mission is to see the Tanzanian boys winning the coveted trophy in a tough and exciting tournament.

A towering left-armed batsman and the former national team skipper Hamis Abdallah is the team manager.

Among others in the team are regular faces with international experience such as Kassim Nassoro, Mohamed Omary, Ally Kimote and Salum Jumbe.

Others are Yalinde Nkanya, Harsheen Chouhan, Johnson Nyambo, Akhil Anil, Jitin Singh, Sanjay Thakor, Amal Amal, Ivan Seleman and Mohamed Yunus.

All matches will be staged at Gahanga oval and the Tanzanian envoys will start their campaign against Sierra Leone.

The following day (December 4) Tanzania will meet Ghana while another date will be against Mozambique on December 5th this year.

The fixture shows that the Tanzanian envoys will confront Eswatini on December 6th this yeat  before facing Gambia on the same day.

Other matches on their fixture will be against Nigeria and Cameroon on December 8th and 9th respectively.

Tanzania has regularly participated in the regional qualifiers, making a positive participation despite its failure to win the title.

The Tanzanian envoys recently won the so-called Tanzania-Rwanda Bilateral Series as part of their build up ahead of the event in Kigali.