Ghana’s senior national men’s cricket team intensified their preparations for the ACA T20 Africa Cup qualifiers that will be held in Abuja from June 22 to 30 2023.
The team started a non-residential camping at the Achimota Cricket Oval early May and trains for 3 times a week; Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
The team engaged in their first friendly match against an Indian select team on Sunday, May 28, 2023 and were 33 runs victors.
Ghana’s team scored 157/6 and limited the Indian select team to 124/10 in 18.1 overs, as Obed Harvey was adjudged player of the match with 4.0-0-14-4. Rexford Bakum expressed himself, scoring 52-33, reaching the boundary on 5 occasions.
The team aims to make amends in the second edition of the Africa Cricket Association Cup finals after a poor campaign in the finals of the first edition in South Africa in September 2022, having made a 100% qualification record in April 2018, beating the likes of host Nigeria, Gambia, Cameroon, and Sierra Leone at the TBS in Lagos.
Meanwhile, 18 players have been called up for the task and final 14 expected to be named for the trip to Abuja.
Obed Harvey, Samson Awiah, Kofi Bagabena, Thomas Bakiweyem, Kelvin Marko Awala, Aziz Sualley, Rexford Bakum and Richmond Baaleri made the cut.
We also have the likes of Alex Osei, Joseph Kwame Theodore, Nurudeen Ibrahim, Paul Ayoleyine, James Vifah, Daniel Kwabena Anefie and Venkatesan Arumugam. Completing the 18-man squad include Aqeel Syed Israr, Michael Aboagye and Godfred Bakiweyem.
The second edition of the ACA T20 Cup qualifiers has host Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Cameroon, paired in Group A, while Gambia, Mali, and Ghana will battle it in Group B in a single round robin for semis and final in Abuja.
President of the Ghana Cricket Association, Emmanuel Kwame Asare, in an interview with TalksenseSports hopes to get some funding from corporate bodies to begin residential camping before the qualifiers.
“We are hoping that we get some sponsorship from the letters that we wrote to some corporate bodies, so that we could move on to residential one maybe a month to the competition, incidentally we are about 4 weeks to go and I don’t see my way clear enough, so possibly we may continue with this until something comes. We pray for injury free as the players are a bit rusty but skills intact and with that we can qualify to the finals.”
Head Coach of the Team, Rajinder Parsad Sharma tells TalksenseSports, it won’t be difficult for him to pick his final 14 players, believing it is just about performance.
“Once we don’t train every day, we can say, we’ve been preparing for some weeks. We called eighteen players because there could be injury. We make some changes in the team and we can qualify if we can beat Mali and Gambia. I have been the batting coach before being head coach and so we have made some changes to the batting order to help us. In selecting, that is why we have started the friendly matches, so according to the performance, we will choose the best. After 2 months, we have another tournament, so it is good we have the 18.”
Samson Kwasi Awe Awiah is now the captain of the team and he says their ultimate is to come tops in the qualifiers, beating every team, including Nigeria.
“The team is 80% prepared now and we are hoping to go to camp because that will actually bring out the best in us. The ultimately goal is to qualify by beating all the teams, because we aim more than just qualifying but winning it. We are on top of our training and we will surely be in good shape for the tournament.”
Botswana emerged champions in the Southern qualifiers with victories over runners up Malawi, 3rd place Mozambique plus Mauritius and Eswatini who couldn’t qualify for the finals in September.
There is the East Africa qualification next month in Kampala, where Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya will square it off for 2 slots in the finals that will be held in Johannesburg in September 2023.
Uganda are the maiden edition champions of the ACA T20 Africa Cup, after beating Tanzania in the finals in September.
By: Davis Nii Attuquaye Clottey
