Kenya Women's cricket team stepping up preparations ahead of two crucial international assignments

© Ijeoma Okigbo

CRICKET Kenya Women's cricket team stepping up preparations ahead of two crucial international assignments

Abigael Wafula 15:12 - 02.08.2023

The team is currently sharpening their skills at the Ruaraka Sports Club in preparation for the two events.

Kenya women's cricket team is plotting for Indonesia as they gear up for the bilateral series set for August 16 to 26 in Indonesia.

Kenya are ranked 23rd by the International Cricket Council, three places behind Indonesia, and head coach Francis Otieno believes a win over them will increase their points and enable them to rise through the ranks.

Team Kenya will also be up against Qatar but that is of less worry since the Arab country is ranked 46th.

Indonesia is ranked above Kenya by two places so we really want to go and play them and if we can be able to beat them, then that means that we shall have gained more points for Kenya so we can be able to go ahead of the others in terms of ranking. Our biggest goal is to make sure that we go to Indonesia and try to win games against them,” Otieno told KBC Sport.

He added that the team is also preparing for the 2024 ICC T20 World Cup Africa Division Two qualifiers scheduled for September 2 to 8 in Botswana.

Team Kenya will be up against the hosts Botswana, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, and Mozambique.

The top two teams will then proceed to the regional qualifiers to be played in Uganda between December 9 and 17.

Top-tier sides, Nigeria, Rwanda, Namibia, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe are already through to the regional qualifiers in Kampala and will be joined by the two teams from the Botswana tournament.

The long road to Bangladesh 2024 will continue as the top two teams from the Uganda tournament, proceed to the global qualifiers, to be played next year, where the ICC’s rigorous qualification will conclude.

We are planning to take a squad of 14 players but at the moment, we have 20, so we shall just trim the numbers down,” he said.

The team is currently sharpening their skills at the Ruaraka Sports Club in preparation for the two events.

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