Tanzania could host the first African Under-15 tournament early next year, said the Tanzania Cricket Association (TCA). Their secretary-general Tom Mhinzi said they had been asked by the African Cricket Association (ACA) to host it, pending official confirmation.

Continue reading "Tanzania in line to host junior tournament"

Emmanuel Nakaana’s 58 guided Uganda to a ten-wicket win over Rwanda in the opening round of the ICC East Africa Under-17 tournament. In the day’s other game, Kenya thrashed defending champions Tanzania by 100 runs.

Next week's ICC annual get-together promises to have more than its fair share of politicking, posturing and controversy. But, unless there is a major about-turn, it should also be a watershed for the Associates and Affiliates.

In 2009, income from the ICC's six-year media deal with ESPN-Star, worth over US$1 billion, kicks in, and while the game's big boys will still keep the lion's share, the rest will see substantial increases in their incomes.

Continue reading "Future bright beyond the Test world"

From 8th to 11th Dec 2007 Cricket Kenya hosted the U15 boys and women’s open tournament in Nairobi, under the umbrella of Africa Cricket Association (ACA). The Tanzanian U15 boys team under the Development coach Riziki Kiseto, performed well, in spite of losing all their games. The big physical builds of the Ugandan, Kenyan and Rwandese U15 players over shadowed the tiny Tanzanian players forcing them to play their games in a shell.

It was indeed a good experience for all the East African youths that participated in this tournament who also got the opportunity to make new friends from the neighbouring countries through the game of cricket at a tender age.

The Tanzanian women’s team under the Development coach Hamisi Abadalla, became runners up in the women’s category comprising of teams from Uganda, Tanzania and the host Kenya. Tanzania women’s team failed to defend its championship title for the seventh consecutive year. This was the first time after six years that the Ugandan side managed to win over the Tanzania.

DOMESTIC LEAGUE

Aga Khan and Academy boys qualified for the finals of the DRCC league after their win against Ekta and Anadil Burhani in the Semi finals. The finals played on the 11/11/07, was a very exciting game. Aga Khan won the toss and decided to bat scoring 206 / 9 in the 50 allotted over. In defending their score Aga Khan managed to take all the main wickets early giving them hope of winning the finals. It was Hamisi Abdalla the skipper of the academy boys who played a well controlled inning to deny Aga Khan Victory scoring 96 runs.

The annually played Mwalimu Nyerere Cup took off immediately after the completion of the DRCC league. Four teams qualified for the semi finals. Aga Khan was on top of the table with Ekta academy boys and Dar Gymkhana all on equal points. Aga Khan and Academy Boys once again qualified to meet in the finals of the Mwalimu Nyerere Cup. The finals ended in a tie with Aga Khan winning the finals on technical grounds of their head on win in the earlier round robin.

Other individual awards were presented to the following:

1. Bhavesh Govind best batter trophy

2. Khalil Rehemtulla best bowler trophy

3. Kassimu Nassoro best all rounder.

In the ‘B’ division Dar International played against Union club in the finals of the Mwalimu Nyerere Cup. Dar International won the toss and elected to bat scoring 168/9 in the 30 allotted over game and this time did manage to defend their score in a tight game by restricting union club for 160 all out in 28 over to clinch the winner’s trophy.

Administration

The Association held its AGM on the 16th Dec 2007. Chairman’s report and financial reports were adopted by members. A Constitutional amendment for the financial year to end on 31 Dec was unanimously approved by all members present.

Fund Raising
Dar es salaam International Club and the Dik Diks under the leadership of Tony Brennan organized a fund raising game for the development of Cricket in Tanzania. South Africa v/s Rest of the world was played on the 17th Nov 2007 by player comprising from expatriate community working in Tanzania.

A sum of USD $500/- and Tshs 382,000/- were raised and donated to TCA for the development of the game. South Africa won the toss and elected to bat scoring 187 runs in the 30 allotted over game. In reply the rest of the world team made 191 in 29.2 over to win the game. The event was very interesting with both sides displaying some good strokes in batting.

Development
The development committee arranged a two week holiday camp for juniors from the 16th to 31st Dec 2007. This junior holiday camp was designed to prepare the youths for the junior structured league scheduled to commence in Jan 2008.

On 25th Jan a structured junior league took off for the first time in Dar es salaam with eight teams participating in two groups in a twenty 20 format. The event was played with very competitive spirit and discipline. The youths displayed their talents in all the departments of the game making the event every exciting with good team and individual scores. Schools combine team and Al Madresa qualified for the finals of this event. Schools combine won the toss and elected to bat scoring 92/7 in 20 allotted over. In defending the score the schools combine restricted Al Madresa for 62 /10 in 16 over to clinch the junior league 2008 trophy.

Individual trophies were awarded to various participants. Master Kake Singh of schools combine scored a total of 48 runs took 7 wickets of three games was awarded the all rounder trophy, Master Micheal Kefa of schools combine scoring a total of 91 runs for his team of three games with HS 61* received the best batter award, Master savastra Patel of Indian School received the best bowler award for taking 6 wickets for his team and Master Oska Manyanya of Victoria schools settling for the best fielder award for taking 5 catches.

This first appeared in a recent ICC Development newsletter

Tanzania is considering sending a squad to the UK, under the watchful eye of the MCC in London.

The objective of the UK tour is to gauge the team and prepare for the International Cricket Council's World cricket league for division four to be held between August and September in a country to be named later. MCC last year paid a visit to some African countries that included Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar where they played a couple of matches against local sides.

Other planned trials tour include playing against Kenya at a date and venue to be named later after communicating with the Cricket Kenya officials. The trials and UK tour is aimed at giving the team exposure and look forward to staging a qualifier campaign to feature in the 2011 World Cup to be jointly staged by India, Pakistant and Sri Lanka.

Read the full story at AllAfrica.

The number of people actively participating in cricket outside the Test-playing countries increased 17% in 2007, according to the ICC.

The research, carried out by the ICC's development program, was collated from 33 Associate and 58 Affiliate members. It showed that there were 338,051 male and female players in those countries in 2007, an increase of 49,158 on the previous year. Since 2002, when there were 144,047 participants, there has been a 135% rise.

Click here for the full story.

Botswana produced the shock of the Africa Under-19 World Cup Qualifiers when they Uganda by 27 runs to reach the semi-finals in Benoni on Monday.

Botswana's unexpected victory eliminated Tanzania from the semi-final on net run-rate after the duo along with Uganda ended up at four points each from three matches. In Wednesday's semi-finals, Uganda meets Namibia while Kenya faces Botswana. Kenya topped Pool One after conjuring up a four-wicket victory over Zambia while Namibia finished second after defeating Ghana by 172 runs, courtesy of an unbeaten century by Sean Silver.

In the Botswana-Uganda match, Botswana scored 192 for 8 after being put into bat with contributions from Karan Kapoor (54) and Nadeem Tajbhay (36) while Emmanuel Nakaana bagged 3 for 45. In turn, Uganda was dismissed for 165 in 44 overs after losing their last seven wickets for 54.

Tanzania, in their last match, carved out a 153-run victory over Nigeria. Athumani Kakonzi (70) and Seif Abdul (68) put on 123 for the second wicket to set the platform for Tanzania's 296 in 49.5 overs. Nigeria, in its target chase, were bowled out for 143.

Silver scored 101 to inspire Namibia to a 172-run victory over Ghana and featured in a 117-run second wicket partnership with Tiaan Louw (62) as Namibia scored 287 for 6. Ghana were dismissed for 115 with Elandre Oosthuizen taking 4 for 39 and Louis Petrus van der Westhuizen claiming 3 for 13.

Spinners Rakep Patel and Rohit Vekaria shared six wickets to help Kenya beat Zamibia by four wickets. Patel took 3 for 16 and Vekaria bagged 3 for 17 as Zambia were spun out for 152. Kenya achieved victory in 34.1 overs for the loss of six wickets.

The winner of the Africa Under-19 Qualifiers join Papua New Guinea (from the East Asia-Pacific Region), Ireland (from the Europe Region) and Bermuda (from the Americas Region), the ICC's 10 Full Members and hosts Malaysia at the 16-team U-19 World Cup from February 17 to March 2 2008 in Malaysia.

Eight of cricket’s emerging nations will be hoping to take one step towards qualification for the 2011 World Cup when the World Cricket League Division 3 gets underway this Sunday (May 27) in Darwin.

The top two teams from this event will join UAE, Namibia, Denmark and Oman
in Windhoek, Namibia at the ICC World Cricket League Division 2 November. The top four teams from the event in Namibia will automatically qualify for the ICC World Cup Qualifier in the UAE in 2009, while the two remaining teams will have a second chance to qualify for the UAE tournament at the World Cricket League Division 3 in early 2009.

Click here for the full team-by-team preview.

Fast bowler Peter Ongondo headed a Nairobi Province Cricket Association NPCA) Select side which arrived in Dar es Salaam for a four one-dayers against the Tanzanian national side.

"Most of our players are under-19 and they need an experienced person like Ongondo to motivate them," David Asiji, one of the team’s coaches, said.

Zully Rehemtulla, the Tanzania Cricket Association chairman, explained the matches were preparation for the World Division III Cricket League in Australia which starts at the end of the month.

NPCA squad Peter Ongondo, Nelson Odhiambo, Moses Otieno, Lawrence Okoth, Dominic Wesonga, Francis Otieno, Shashanka Maheshwari, Peter Kituku, David Maina, Ken Migai, Abdul Wajmi, Benjamin Oluga, Pritesh Limbachia, Keval Patel, Shem Ng’oche, Ritin Limbani.

Tanzania are gearing up for a series of friendlies against Kenya in preparation for division three of the World Cricket League which will be held in Australia, in June.

Zully Rehemtullah, the Tanzania Cricket Association’s chairman, told The Kenya Times that he expected his side to arrive on May 10.

More details at their website.

Tanzania’s national cricket team are off to India for a 20-day training spell to prepare for the ICC’s World Cricket League Division Three which will take place in Australia in May.

It won't get many column inches in the mainstream cricket press, but the World Cricket League, which started in Nairobi yesterday and continues into next week, features the best of the rest, the six sides just under the ten Test-playing countries. For the two finalists, the rewards are bountiful - a place among the big boys in the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa this September, along with $250,000. For countries used to surviving on annual handouts from the ICC of less than $200,000, that's big money.

Continue reading "A long way from home"

While most attention outside the Test world centres on the World Cricket League which gets underway next Monday (January 29), two of the sides providing opposition in warm-up matches will be taking those games far more seriously.

Uganda and Tanzania have been brought in by the tournament organisers to provide opposition for the six countries in the WCL, but both will be looking to impress. Uganda have been talked up by many in the last year, but they suffered heavy defeats when Kenya toured there at the end of last year.

"Everybody is in good frame of mind,” former Uganda Under-19 captain Hamza Saleh told The Monitor. “We have played with these guys (Tanzanians) in different age group events before and we will handle them cautiously."

The countdown for the 2009 women's World Cup begins this Friday when four African countries will assemble in Nairobi, Kenya for the start of the World Cup regional qualifiers.

Joining the host nation Kenya will be Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Uganda and the one-day competition will be played in a simple round-robin format, with the winner heading to the next qualifying stage, a tournament in Pakistan at the end of next year. Eight teams will vie for two spots at the 2009 World Cup in Australia.

Click here for the full story.

Tanzania has been confirmed the host of this year’s World Cup qualifying series for the Africa region, which gets underway in August in Dar es Salaam.

Tanzania Cricket Association (TCA), Chairman Zully Rehemtulah said on Saturday that their confirmation follows an assessment they had carried out in relation to the standard of the pitch.

He said the tournament would be held at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) grounds, a decision that has been reached after a series of negotiations between TCA and UDSM officials.

Rehemtulah who is also the Cricket instructor, said lack of an acceptable pitch worried them a lot.

He said three grounds that were earmarked for the tournament Dar es Salaam Gymkhana, Annadir Burhani and Leaders’ could not be secured because of reasons beyond their control.

“However, we have been struggling to get the University of Dar es Salaam grounds and luckily we have managed, we are now going to host the tournament,” he said confidently.