The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
THE National University of Science and Technology men’s cricket team left the country on Wednesday for South Africa on their way to Sri Lanka where they will take part in the Red Bull World Campus Cricket tournament to be held in Colombo from 23 to 29 September.
Captained by top order batsman Duncan Findi and coached by Pfungwadzashe Tsongora, the Nust team left Zimbabwe on Wednesday afternoon by bus to South Africa where they will catch their flight to Sri Lanka on Thursday. Nust got the right to represent Zimbabwe at the Red Bull World Campus Cricket tournament by virtue of Zimbabwe University Sports Association Games champions. The lads from the City of Kings defeated University of Zimbabwe by 75 runs in the final played at Bulawayo Athletic Club in April.
Last year, Nust last year lost all the matches they played against United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in their debut appearance at the eight-team competition. Tsongora expressed his desire to see the team perform better this time around.
“It’s actually quite a good experience that we are going back again having won the domestic national championship, it’s a good because the guys are geared up, we are expecting to play better than next year, the fact that we lost three matches is what we want to rectify,’’ Tsongora said.
Skipper Findi was grateful for yet another opportunity to go to Sri Lanka with his hope being that they will improve on their display last year since they now know what to expect in the Asian country.
“We are glad that the Lord has awarded us with another chance to go there, mostly we want to thank the supporters, everyone who had a hand in this so that this trip is successful. This time we are carrying from where we left last year, we hope to improve, we know the conditions now, we know the kind of competition that we are going to face, we did our best in our preparations,’’ Findi said.
Lindiwe Nyoni, the Nust communication and marketing officer said sending the team to Sri Lanka was part of the institution’s quest to produce completely groomed individuals.
“Nust nurtures a wholly groomed individual i.e. nurtures the mental, physical, social, and academic aspects of our students thus their opportunity to play such sports and also participate in tournaments that have led to this,’’ Nyoni said.
She expressed Nust’s desire to expose their learners to global standards in the sporting world as seen by sending the cricket team to Sri Lanka with the hope that the players will market the institution.
It is also Nust wish to expose its students to international standards of sporting as such, their going to Sri Lanka will give them that opportunity. To Nust as a university, we are also placed on the international stage to market our brand and show that as a University we are an internationally recognised University,’’ she said.
The draw for this year’s Red Bull World Campus Cricket will take place on Saturday with matches getting underway the next day. Nust will meanwhile return home on 2 October.
@Mdawini_29
