The U-19 women national cricket team head coach Leonard Nhamburo has sent a warning message to rivals that Rwanda will not go to South Africa for the inaugural ICC U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup as underdogs.
The Zimbabwean tactician was reacting after Rwanda found themselves pooled in the same Group B as England, Pakistan and Zimbabwe as announced by the International Cricket Council last week.
Rwanda reaching the ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup is regarded as the biggest achievement in the country’s cricket history while the country belongs to a group that comprises three countries that have history in cricket.
Reacting to the group B opponents, Nhamburo admitted it’s a world cup where ‘you don’t play teams that you want’ but warned that it would be a mistake to call them underdogs because his team didn’t reach the world cup by chance but on merit.
"Yes, you can call us underdogs because it’s Rwanda. People don’t know Rwanda in terms of cricket but to us, qualifying for this world cup shows that we’ve got something that is along with the same quality that all those other 15 teams possess,” he said.
"So we are not going there as underdogs and remember this is the first ever U19 World Cup for women. So, it’s not like it has been there before...whatever team is coming to the world cup next year for the first time,” he added.
The coach said the team went for the Africa qualifier knowing who they would face in the group stages since February this year, meaning that each of the nine teams that participated in the Africa qualifiers knew they would join Group B just in case they had won the qualifier.
Asked about the threat his opponents may pose to his young women and his ambitions ahead of the world cup, Nhamburo said the performance of his team won’t lie on who they face in the group stage but rather how good cricket his team will play at the tournament.
"If we play good cricket against any team in our group, I think we will proceed to the next stage and that is our aim. We need to at least finish in the 10 ten or top eight,” he said.