Sierra Leone Cricket Association executives and board members met for the first time after their election in a well attended and fruitful meeting in which they discussed the way forward of the association.
In the meeting, they discussed in depth, details of the International Cricket Council (ICC) under 19 qualifier division 2 tournaments. They looked at the preparation and challenges faced during the past three month of training and the path way to the under 19 world cup which they will be expecting to go through.
They also glanced at development plans for the second half of 2016 which includes courses for umpires, coaches and players; leagues for under 13 and 17, mass cricket participation and also the new cricket domestic structure which the executive will put together and present to the board.
According to the Chief Executive Officer Francis Trevor Samura this domestic structure will see an all inclusive structure taking the game to the schools and organizing leagues for primary and secondary schools for both male and female pupils across the country.
They discussed about how the senior league season should look like and when exactly they should scheduled its start. But they all agreed that they should continue with what they met by maintaining the current leagues calendar.
They said the league season is very important because it will enable the players to keep fit and give the coaches and selection committee ample time to select the players on performance basis to represent the country in international competitions.
During the meeting, they went further to glance at the preparation of the upcoming North West Africa Cricket Council (NWACC) tournament which the female national team is hoping to defend in Accra Ghana this year.
Issues about the maiden edition of the male NWACC tournament also came up. But the CEO said preparation of the tournament grounds is ongoing in Nigeria and they’ve proposed to host it in February 2017.
This he said will serve as added advantage to Sierra Leone which will be playing against countries like Ghana in the Men’s division and South Africa later in April.
They also constitute the newly appointed media team headed by Samuel John.
The family also took significant decisions that have to do with the selection of the under 19 national team that will be representing Sierra Leone in the ODI tournament in South Africa, in September this year. They agreed to give the coaches the free will to select the players since most of those in the selection committee are new to the players.
They also decided to do follow up on the Sussex Land which is the hope of Sierra Leone Cricket through the Minister of Sport Ahmed Khanou and also re-write a letter for secretariat space at the Siaka Steven Stadium to the Stadium management.
By Bernard Turay
Friday July 22, 2016
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