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Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter

THE Tuskers women’s cricket team is preparing to travel to Harare where they will take part in an interprovincial white ball tournament starting on Friday.

Coached by Trevor Phiri, the Tuskers women’s team has been training at Bulawayo Athletic Club (BAC) before they depart to the capital tomorrow morning ahead of their opening encounter against Eagles on Friday.

Phiri highlighted that despite rain interrupting some of their practice sessions, preparations have been going well but the time lost due to bad weather has an effect on their arrangements.

“Preparations have been going well but there have been a day or two where we did not practice because of bad weather. As you know we don’t have women’s club cricket so the little time we get to practice prior to games is crucial hence weather disturbance affects us a lot,” said Phiri.

Boasting players who have played at the highest level such as Loryn Phiri, Nomvelo Sibanda, and Tasmeen Granger, Phiri believes it will be a big confidence booster for some of the youngsters in the team and will motivate them to play well.

Trevor Phiri Zimbabwe Under-19 coach

Having not played well in last year’s interprovincial tournament, team captain Sibanda said it was a learning curve and is hopeful they will play better than they did in 2022.

“We have done our homework and we are looking to play better than we did last year. It was not a matter of skill or anything but just our mindset and we have worked on that. We have prepared well, and played two intra-squad games so I think we are in a good state,” she said.

The skipper concurs with her coach that having senior national players will be good for the confidence of the youngsters in the squad.

Phiri added that having such a tournament early in the year is a good start for women’s cricket in the country and having many more as the year progresses will be good exposure for women because with that comes experience. He said it also gives the base for the game.

The tournament is a white ball event and will have four teams, Tuskers, Mountaineers, Eagles, and Rhinos. – @brandon_malvin