RUTENDO CHIRUME
MASVINGO-As the game of cricket is gaining popularity following Zimbabwe’s historic win over former World champions, West Indies, schools have also started trials for their own national championships.
A total of 18 girls from four schools across Masvingo province participated in the selection of cricket players for the National Association of Secondary Heads (NASH) U19 games to be played at Milton High in Bulawayo from 29-31 of this month.
The Masvingo Provincial trials for the game that is threatening to overtake soccer as the most popular sport in the country were held at Masvingo Sports Club on June 22
The four schools are Victoria, Mucheke, Ndarama and Chibi High the only one from outside Masvingo City.
Speaking to the Midweek Watch, Masvingo Provincial Schools cricket general manager, Vincent Maweni said that the trials are meant to select the team that will represent the province at the national championships.
“The main purpose of these games is to build a team to represent our province on the coming NASH Tournament in Bulawayo. We are hosting girls today and the next day there will a boys teams.
“There are officials who were identifying the best players today and so will be for the boys. We will not be concentrating at individual schools as a winner but to select the best 11. This is like a developmental project where we are trying to empower girls and expose them to these types of sports which are male dominated,” he said.
He also said the main reason why there are few schools is because they are trying to rebuild the provincial team after the COVID-19 pandemic which affected a lot of sporting activities.
From the four schools Mucheke dominates with six girls, Mufaro Mukwidzwa , Tatenda Magodo , Lisa Mabhara, Tanya Maredza, Panashe Mabika and Monique Mushanyu
Victoria High School has five girls, Maryse Nyashanu , Collyn Gwevera, Locadia Chiurama, Tafadzwa Mbedzi and Tadiwa Siyaganda while Ndarama has four, Thandi Shoko, Lena Kaunda , Tawananyasha Bhoko, and Tanatsuwa Mayeyeko.
Chibi High School has two girls, Sarah Madiyawo and Gamuchirai Ketty while Diana Sithole who is a learner at Masvingo Christian College but was playing for Mucheke Highsince there is no cricket team at her school also made it into the team.
The Schools were playing T10 (Round Robin) where each team is given an opportunity to bowl 60 balls on each round and each School played one game against each other.
