Harare (New Ziana) -Zimbabwe will this year host another high profile T10 cricket tournament, the first to be held in Africa, in which a number of countries are set to take part.
The tournament, set for 20 to 28 this month, is coming hard on the heels of the successful World Cup qualifiers held last month in the country.
Hosting of the tournament has seen improvements on the tournament venue where flood lights have been set up to enable some of the games to be played at night.
Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) chairman Tavengwa Mukhuhlani said the tournament is significant in that it will help in repositioning cricket development as in the past five years they have been intentionally and strategically participating in almost every qualifier.
“Part of that process involves building content and context in the form of tournaments and we think T10 is part and parcel of that process. It is coming just ahead of our season and just after the World Cup qualifiers, so it is part of the process that Zimbabwe Cricket has engaged in since 2015 to try and rebrand and reposition itself,” he said.
He said T10 was part and parcel of the development process of the game in the country.
Under the same programme, Mukhuhlani said school children are also set to benefit as some will get sponsorship to broaden their skills abroad.
Over the years, he said, the sport was blighted by allegations of drug abuse and match-fixing which led to three high profile bans of players, but they have since put in place measures to curb all this.
“Integrity is our top priority in any tournament, be it Logan Cup, club cricket or our bilateral cricket, and it’s no less for this particular tournament. We have gone through a whole process of due diligence prior to licensing T10 and that process involves working together with the integrity unit at ICC (International Cricket Council),” he said.
Speaking at the same event, T10 Global Sports founder and chairman, Nawab Shaji- UI Mulk said tournament will bring a lot of benefits to Zimbabwean cricket as they are set to invest in the domestic structures.
He said over the past few weeks, they have been seized with junior cricket development throughout the country, a development that has seen the selection of 30 school children, some of whom have already been given scholarships.
New Ziana
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