National Cricket team for World League tourney

A total of 14 players and four officials of the national cricket team will leave for South Africa on Friday September 12, 2014 to participate in  a six-day   World League division six qualifier  tournament.

The early departure of the team is to provide them with the needed opportunity to engage in vigorous training sessions in the host country with a view to improving their combat readiness. It is also to enable them to fully acclimatise with the weather conditions in South Africa before the tournament kicks off on September 20, 2014.

The team is, therefore, rounding off in Accra their training sessions which  started three months ago at the Achimota cricket court.

The Cricket Assessor, Mr Dennis Amoa-Ababio who briefed Daily Graphic on the tournament, said similar tournaments were taking place in other continents across the world.

He said besides Ghana and the host country,  South Africa, other teams from Swaziland, The Seychelles, Zambia and Nigeria will also participate in the tournament, which officially ends on September 26.

Expressing confidence in the team, he said with their exposure in international tournaments, the national cricket team was likely to return home with honours.

“ The team is now bringing its training in Accra to an end, and with the preparations so far, we expect them to perform very creditably” he assured.

“The training so far is very positive, especially in the areas of discipline and commitment of the players. Discipline and commitment are key to success in tournaments of this nature . This is  because without them,  a team’s performance is eventually affected, he explained.

According to Mr  Amoa-Ababio, the  arrival of  new coach R P Shama three months ago has impacted tremendously on the performance of the players, explaining that their techniques  have improved significantly.

He, therefore, urged the players to focus on their last preparations in South Africa for them to be emotionally stable before the tournament gets underway.