dyton mupawaenda
Blessing Malinganiza
The Zimbabwe Lady Chevrons’ quest for the T20 Women Cricket World Cup finals start today when they face Kenya in the opening qualifier in Uganda.
Eight teams are battling for two African tickets for the final qualifiers set for next year ahead of the tournament proper.
The teams have been divided into two groups which will see the Lady Chevrons battling it out with Kenya, Tanzania and Botswana in Group A while Group B comprises of hosts Uganda, Namibia and Rwanda.
After facing Kenya today, the Lady Chevrons play Botswana tomorrow and then round up their group fixtures against Tanzania on Wednesday.
The top teams from each group progress to the semi-finals and finalists then progress to the final round of qualifiers.
Lady Chevrons coach Gary Brent believes it will not be a stroll in the park for his charges.
“There has been some great developments of cricket on the continent and there are no more walk overs these days especially in the shorter version of the game.
“In our group we have Botswana, Kenya and Tanzania, so anyone of these teams on any day can take us down if we are not up to scratch,” said Brent.
With the Lady Chevrons being the highest ranked team at the qualifiers Brent has challenged his charges not to be complacent describing complacency as the biggest threat to their qualification.
“We are going in (qualifiers) as the highest ranked team but that it is on paper and it does not mean anything on the day and we are very cognisant of that and we know that we have to do everything right every day.
“Our threat to qualification is ourselves,” said the Lady Chevrons coach.
Brent also challenged his charges to be the hungriest of the eight teams.
“We are obviously very confident that we will hopefully get a place at the global qualifiers but we are not taking anything for granted.
“We will be fighting with everything that we have to be that team that is hungrier than the other teams and to be the best team on the day because the minute you take the foot of the gas someone will take over and we do not want to really do that,” he said.
Online Reporter