Cricket Kenya boss Jackie Janmohammed taking photo with the team when she hosted them for a luncheon on Wednesday, December 21.PHOTO/Courtesy
NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 21 – Cricket Kenya boss Jackie Janmohammed has said that the British Army women’s team has accepted an invitation to play the national women’s cricket team next year ahead of the African Qualifiers for the Women’s 2018 T20 Cricket World Cup.
Janmohammed was speaking when she presented the team with cash rewards of Sh10, 200 ($100) each for winning the UAE women’s International Twenty20 Cup in Sharjah on Monday.
“We want to start preparing the girls for the World Cup qualifiers so our aim is to start exposing them early. They are very talented and focused and they just need is the exposure. We will be inviting teams in Kenya or sending them abroad to get the experience,” the Cricket Kenya boss said.
“The British Army team is coming in October next year for a two week tour so it will be a best platform to gauge our fitness level,” she added.
Kenya won the Twenty20 tournament after beating their hosts the UAE by five runs. The women’s team had seven players from Nairobi and seven from Nakuru and Janmohammed said the region has talent.
“Winning the tournament in UAE was the best Christmas gift ever. It shows our women are maturing. This was their first international tournament out of Africa and they brought the trophy home.”
“Nakuru is just amazing, surprisingly there is no single male player that has come from Nakuru in the resent past but we have seven young girls coming from Nakuru so there must be something that we are doing right there. We have had good coaches and are committed to the course and I’m just hoping Nakuru grows from strength to strength,” the Cricket Kenya added.
Team coach Lameck Ngoche said that he wants the girls to face top level competition by playing at the Women’s World Cup.
“My biggest interest is that I want to see the girls play in the World Cup. I really appreciate what the team did in UAE and this came because they followed the instructions. The run-outs happened in the game against Uganda because the girls were tensed but we managed to correct in the next games,” Ngoche stated.
“The most important thing is to start playing 50 Overs for them to spend time into the wicket then playing 20 Overs will become very easy,” the coach asserted.
Captain Daisy Wairimu said she looked up to the entire team when making decisions on the field of play.
“I’m so exited for winning the tournament being my first time to play outside Africa. The team was cooperative and we worked as a team. Everyone respected my decision and if my decision was not okay the senior players corrected me but I gave a priority to everyone’s opinion,” Wairimu said.
