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Sports Reporter
JOYLORD Gumbie has replaced Keith Jaure in the Zimbabwe President’s XI team to compete in the Africa T20 Cup tournament.

The continental Twenty20 tournament will be held in South Africa, from today up to October 4. The tournament will be hosted by Cricket South Africa (CSA).

Jaure has been released to join the squad, which is preparing for the International Cricket Council Under-19 Cricket World Cup to be held in Bangladesh early next year. He will also play in the forthcoming schools’ cricket week for his Churchill High School team.

Convenor of selectors Kenyon Ziehl said: “Keith Jaure has gone back to the Under-19 set-up to get more games under his belt. Because the Africa Cup tournament rules require us to field at least two players under the age of 21, we have called up Joylord to replace him.”

The 15-man squad announced by the selectors includes a mixture of players who have had a taste of international cricket and youngsters who have excelled at age-group level. It is captained by Zimbabwe all-rounder Malcolm Waller.

“We’ve gone with a combination of youth and experience, and the idea is to give an opportunity to fringe players to put their hands up in light of the ICC World Twenty20 tournament early next year,” said Ziehl.

Kenya and Namibia will also participate in the tournament, which will include 12 CSA Affiliates as well as Associate Member KwaZulu-Natal Inland. The tournament will consist of four pools of four teams each, with the winners of each pool advancing to the semi-finals on October 3 and the last two to the final the following day.

Zimbabwe is in pool A alongside Western Province, Northens and Easterns. All the games in Pool A will be played at Sahara Park Willowmoore in Benoni.

Play will be on weekends. During the pool stages, there will be two matches each day with the first in the afternoon and the second in the evening on Friday and Saturday, and the first mid-morning and the second in the afternoon on Sunday.