ZIMBABWE Under-19 cricket team coach Stephen Mangongo has backed his team to “shock the world” at the International Cricket Council (ICC) Under-19 Cricket World Cup to be held in New Zealand from January 13 to February 3 next year.
BY DANIEL NHAKANISO
Mangongo announced his 15-man squad, captained by St George’s rising star Liam Roche at a press conference held at Harare Sports Club on Friday before declaring his charges’ readiness for the youth global showpiece.
Zimbabwe have been placed in Group B alongside minnows Papua New Guinea and heavyweights India and Australia.
Expressing his satisfaction with the team’s preparations, Mangongo said he was confident his charges would put on a much improved perfomance after finishing 10th out of 16 nations at the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup 2016 held in Bangladesh.
“We need to make sure that we keep improving, these boys are the future and they hold the light in local cricket. At the moment our [senior] national team is in the backwaters and if we are to improve, we need to take junior cricket seriously,” Mangongo said.
“We are doing everything possible to make sure that these juniors keep improving. With the World Cup in mind, we are definitely looking to go there and shock the world. We have done the hard yards, we’ve done all the preparations required of us and the key things are the processes. From number 10, we want to get better, it could be sixth or number one or number four but the key thing is we want to keep improving,” he said.
Mangongo said the final squad was selected following a rigorous two-year programme that included trials, several training camps and tours to Malaysia, Namibia, South Africa, Australia and India by the youth side.
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Zimbabwe also recently hosted reigning world champions West Indies for a three-match Youth One Day International (ODI) series in July, which they narrowly lost 2-1.
“The boys have had a long journey which started with 88 boys from the 10 provinces and the two-year programme has been very intense and rigorous,” he said.
“It is an honour to have worked with such kind of boys who cherish and have a dream to eventually represent their nation at the highest level.
“These boys are living a dream and hopefully in a few years’ time, or a few months’ time, we will see some of them graduating into higher levels of cricket.”
Zimbabwe squad for icc Under-19 cricket World Cup:
Gregory Dollar (Wkt), Donald Mlambo, Liam Roche (captain), Tanunurwa Makoni, Jayden Schadendorf, Milton Shumba (vice-captain), Alistair Frost, Nkosilathi Nunu, Jonathan Conolly, Dion Myers, Wesley Madhevere, Kieran Robinson, Robert Chimhinya, Tinashe Nenhunzi, Taun Harrison.
Non-travelling reserves: Marshall Takodza, Dane Schadendorf, Tawanda Muyeye, Struan Moore-Gordon, Dion Mazhawidza
