Tanzania Cricket Association (TCA) will be organizing the men’s domestic Super League competition in December 2020, which will be played in the 50-overs format and will be part of the pathway for capped and uncapped players to stake claim in the national squad for International tournaments/competitions in 2021.
Four teams will be formed to take part in the Super League, namely Kilimanjaro Aces, Ngorongoro Titans, Serengeti Giants and Tembo Warriors, as the cricket board along with national head coach Steve Tikolo will select the players featuring the current senior team members, the U19 youth team members and also regional players, who have come through the ranks in the development program in the coming week.
Tanzania will be taking part in the T20 World Cup sub-regional qualifiers in 2021, and there is a possibility of having another ICC event (50-overs format) in the calendar but it is not yet confirmed. Tanzania were the last Associate member country to have played competitive cricket before the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns globally in March 2020, when they toured Zimbabwe and played a series of T20 matches against the Midwest Rhinos franchise team.
Domestic season has since started after the resumption of cricket activities in June 2020 across all divisions, but the first major tournament was held in August 2020, when the top clubs in the country took part in the Advanced Premier League T20 tournament, in which all the current national squad members took part along with other domestic players handpicked by the cricket board and Steve Tikolo.
Tikolo is particularly emphasizing on the need of more 50-overs cricket in the domestic season as currently there is only one national tournament being held in a calendar year in Tanzania. TCA spokesperson Atif Salim said in a conversation with Czarsportz “The idea of our coach the former Kenyan legend Steve Tikolo is that due to the domestic league for 50 over runs only once in a year and the competition level isn’t satisfactory to him. That is why the super league is launched this year by picking up the best performers from the domestic leagues, the upcoming promising youths from the development programme and the current national team squad.”
Spreading the game throughout the regions in Tanzania is of utmost importance for TCA, and the development program held at centers in Arusha, Dar es Salaam, Tanga, Morogoro, Mwanza and Gairo are helping the talent to get noticed and recognized by the cricket board by giving them the opportunity to play top-tier domestic competitions in the country. “We are very proud of our development program this year that we have opened more centers in the region and thus the game is expanding in the local community more which boast of the majority of the population. Its also reflecting on the national team squad whereby there is balance in the squad interms of background of players coming from different communities unlike how it was 25 years ago.” Atif Salim said.
