Girls Set For Cricket Action

As First Female League To Start Soon

Cricket will no longer be a game for men in the country as the first-ever national female league for the female category is set to kick-off next month, says Johnny Gomez, the President of the Gambia Cricket Association.

This is a move taken by the cricket association in fulfilment of one of the criteria of the International Cricket Council as affiliates.

The Gambia Cricket Association has staged a series of coaching clinics for girls in an effort to lay a standard national female league and the first-ever national female cricket team.

The latest clinic was staged yesterday for nine secondary schools in St. Therese's, Gambia Senior, JC Faye, SOS, Crab Island, St Joseph, St. Augustine (Pa Joof), Latrikunda and Garba Jahumpa, whoparticipated ina one-day coaching clinic for girls at the July 22ndSquare, marking the sixth clinic successfully staged by the association.

The clinic centred on fielding, bowling and batting fundamentals, running between wickets and wicket keeping.

According to Johnny, a meeting was staged between the association with physical education teachers of the schools that took part in the clinic, and have agreed to stage the league next month.

As part of efforts to cement the initiative, the cricket boss said they are set to meet the Senior Secondary School Sports Committee to include the Secondary School Female League in their calendar of activities.

"After putting in place the national league, our next step is to work on producing the first female team that will participate in the African Women Championship in South Africa next year and recruit players for the U-15 category," the determined cricket boss stated.