The Tanzania Cricket Association (TCA) has set strategies to include more primary and secondary schools in its development programme this year.

Tanzania Cricket Association (TCA)

The association has also identified Mwanza, Zanzibar and Tanga as the areas where they will put much more efforts this year to improve the level of the sport and identify a new pool of players.

TCA Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Zully Rehemtullah said that during the recent Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Dar es Salaam, it was decided that the sport must continue to grow in the regions apart from Dar es Salaam, Arusha and Morogoro.

“Members felt that spreading the game was among the essential things Tanzania must do this year if it is to achieve its goals,” said Rehemtullah. It was also decided that these identified regions should introduce their respective annual leagues.

“We need to spread the game at grass root level to more regions in Tanzania and at the same time develop more new cricket grounds and facilities to accommodate more players,” he said.

He added: “We’ll continue conducting more cricket educational programmes in all the departments of the game and have good strategy in place for the national teams to be able to climb the ladder of ICC Global ranking.”

However, members of the TCA were still proud of the strides the association has made as far as the development of the sport is concerned. In 2000 the TCA designed a ten-year cricket development programme for grass root level, targeting the municipal schools in Tanzania.

They first trained the school sports teachers towards the game by means of conducting coaching, umpiring and scoring seminars for them. The association also introduced regular competitions among the youngsters as well as more regional leagues especially in Dar es Salaam.

Other regions like Arusha have their own leagues, while Morogoro players do participate in the DRCC, APL and other leagues in Dar es Salaam. Currently over 20 per cent of national players of different age groups are from Morogoro.

In another development, the AGM retained almost all of the association’s past leadership. Chairman Taher Kitisa retained his post, same as his Assistant, Tom Mihinzi. Faraz Juma retained his Treasurer post, while Paul Manyanda and Nazir Manji remained as Members of the Executive Committee. Mama Moyo will lead Women’s Committee.

Source Tanzania Daily News

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