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Tadious Manyepo, Harare Bureau

WARRIORS stand-in captain, Ovidy Karuru, has appealed for the Government to continue supporting them because they have the potential of writing some huge success stories for the country.

The Warriors leave for Durban, South Africa, today for the Cosafa Cup competition where they kick-start their campaign in the quarter-finals on Saturday.

The provisional 34-member squad will then be trimmed to 23 who will proceed to the Afcon contest which begins in Egypt on June 21.

Karuru used Monday night’s send-off dinner to appeal to the Government to help address the players’ concerns.

The event was graced by acting Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation Minister, Kazembe Kazembe, and other senior Government officials.

“We are appealing for support from the Government. Boycotting has never been a thing which we want to do but we also urge the Government to consider the players’ plight.

“We really need Government’s support to go further in the tournament. We thank them for coming up with the fund-raising committee, we hope to see a lot coming our way,” said Karuru.

The Amazulu midfielder expressed optimism the Warriors would retain the Cosafa Cup and promised they will do well at Afcon. 

“We promise to give everything we have in order to make sure that we can go as far as possible at the Afcon tournament,’’ said Karuru.

“We don’t want to exert so much pressure on ourselves by setting targets but what we have done is that we have all agreed, as a team, that we need to go beyond the group phase first and then see where we can go after that.

“Each of the 24 teams going to this tournament want to win the Cup, that is not questionable but we are saying expect positive play and outcome from us.

“We have no pressure as we are definitely not the favourites to win.

“But what I know is we have quality in our ranks and we can actually end up being the dark horses. We have the determination and the zeal to go far in this tournament.”

Midfielder Marvellous Nakamba, who will be the best man at Warriors’ teammate Kuda Mahachi’s wedding on Saturday, will miss the team’s first Cosafa encounter while the latter will miss the entire tournament.