Leemisa Thuseho
THE senior and Under-19 women’s national cricket teams have assembled for a joint training camp at Sofia High School in Butha-Buthe.
The week-long camp, which began on Monday, follows national team trials held from 29 to 30 November at Lesotho High School.
National teams coach, Dzikamai Alexander Mavhiko, said the camp is designed to prepare the two squads for upcoming international assignments next year. He said he had taken advantage of the December holiday break to sharpen the players’ technical abilities, boost their fitness levels and improve match awareness.
However, he said some players, especially from the senior women’s team, were unable to attend due to work commitments.
“This is a one-week skills camp where we want to achieve goals such as sharpening technical abilities, improving fitness, building match awareness and preparing players for higher levels of competition,” Mavhiko told the Lesotho Times this week.
He explained that merging the two teams in one camp is meant to accelerate the development of the Under-19 players by exposing them to the senior team culture and expectations.
“We are having the joint camp to get the Under-19s to learn faster from the seniors’ experience. Also, the system has to be the same to make it easier to graduate from the Under-19 team into the senior team, since they would already be well-versed with the culture of what the senior team is all about. So, it’s all about interaction between these two sets of age groups.”
After the camp, he said, the teams will continue with regular weekend training sessions.
The national team development programme forms a key component of the Lesotho Cricket Association’s (LCA) Development Blueprint/Strategic Plan 2026–2029.
As outlined in the plan presented to the Lesotho National Olympic Committee (LNOC) two weeks ago, the LCA aims to establish a centralised training camp, enhance fitness programmes and organise bilateral friendlies in South Africa for the senior men’s team. The long-term target is to improve the national team’s international ranking and achieve a 50 percent success rate by 2029.
For the senior women’s team, the association is planning regional tri-series competitions as well as specialised skills camps facilitated by mentors from Cricket South Africa Women.
The LCA has also reaffirmed its commitment to grassroots development. It intends to launch a National Under-19 league and enrol local Under-19 teams in exposure tournaments in South Africa’s Free State province.
