Mikia Kalati
THE Lesotho Cricket Association (LCA) president, Sebajoa Sebajoa, says he is not worried by the losses that the under-19 team suffered at the International Cricket Council (ICC) Division 2 qualifiers in South Africa on Sunday and Monday.
Sebajoa said they are taking the tournament as a learning curve.
In the first match, Lesotho lost the match to Mozambique by 245 runs and fell top Ghana by 270 runs against.
The tournament which is being held in Potchefstroom in the North West province of South Africa started on Sunday is expected to end on the 29th of this month.
Sebajoa believes the losses were forgivable as the boys were getting their first taste of international competition.
The Lesotho cricket senior women’s also go to a poor start at the Botswana Six Nations tournament losing their opening match to the host country by 124 runs.
Sebajoa stated that they are not panicking as the competitions are all about preparing their teams for the future.
“We are not concerned about the poor start to the two competitions because for instance looking at the under-19 team, this is their first experience playing in an international competition,” Sebajoa said.
“The association takes this as a learning curve to see how other countries operate their sports while also getting competition from other countries,”
Sebajoa also indicated that his is confident that the players will use the experience from the tournament to improve their performance and the standards of cricket in their country.
“I hope that when they come back they will use that experience to improve as individuals, the standards of cricket in the country as well as their teammates who are not in the national team. I am hopeful about the future as long as we continue to play in international competitions.
“The women’s team also had a poor start but it also about learning. Their team is also made up of young girls and we are building for the future. There is no pressure on them but hopefully in a few years’ time we will reap the rewards of taking these teams to international competitions.
“I am confident we will grow from the two competitions with our two teams and we will also see how they will perform in the to the last days of the tournament.”
Sebajoa said despite the poor showing for both teams, there is still hope for them to progress to the knock-out stages as some of the teams failed to attend the two tournaments.
“Countries like Gambia in who are in our group in the under-19 tournament did not show up while the Zambia women’s team also failed to attend. This means the possibility to progress to the knockout stages is still there,” Sebajoa said.
