Tanzania has named 20 players on the U-19 women’s cricket team to face Rwanda in one of the opening matches of this year’s Africa Cricket Association (ACA) Twenty20 Trophy tournament in Dar-es-Salaam on December 7. 

The week-long tournament, organised by ACA in cooperation with the Tanzania Cricket Association (TCA), will also involve Botswana, Kenya, Mozambique and Uganda. 

National U-19 women cricket squad coach, Hamisi Abdallah started training with the provisional squad in Dar es Salaam last week. 

"We have not managed to assemble the whole squad at the Muhimbili Cricket Academy because the Arusha and Morogoro players are doing exams,” he added. 

The coach said the training camp will officially start early next month and the players will later be trimmed to 14 to form the final squad.

The Dar es Salaam-based players have been drafted into the ongoing Dar es Salaam Regional Cricket Committee (DRCC) League, which predominantly involves men’s teams, in a bid to improve the former’s skills and ensure they stay in great shape. 

The provisional squad, he noted will also play a series of friendly matches early next month to give the players opportunity to put their skills to test, apart from helping the coaching panel spot the players’ weaknesses.