The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
QUEENS Sports Club as well as Bulawayo Athletic Club are getting some attention ahead of the 2022 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Global Qualifier B to be held in Bulawayo next month.
The city is hosting the global qualifier, an eight-team tournament from 8-18 July with the participating teams being Zimbabwe, Jersey, Singapore, United States of America, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Papua New Guinea and Uganda.
Zimbabwe, whose group matches are all going to be played at Queens Sports Club are taking on Singapore, Jersey and the United States of America in the preliminary round of the tournament. The top two teams from each pool will proceed to the final, with the finalists securing qualification to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup to be held in Australia from 16 October to 13 November.
Bulawayo Athletic Club
When a news crew from this publication visited the two facilities last week, ground staff were busy sprucing up the venues in preparation for the tournament. At BAC, ground staff were digging up and removing moles.
Nicholas Singo, the Tuskers general manager said at BAC they have started with the outfield where moles had sprouted all over the outfield, which were being dug up before the affected areas are sprayed and watered.
“At BAC, we are starting to renovate the facility, we have started with the outfield, where we are removing all those moles, then spraying with some pesticide making sure that the ground will be looking good by the time the tournament starts.
“The outfield is looking good, what is impressive is the fact that it’s already looking green despite the fact that its winter now but it’s looking green so it’s just a matter of watering and cutting, we are happy with the outlook at the moment,’’ said Singo.
According to Singo, the pitch was scarified at the end of the domestic season and since it was being used, there is not much else to be done. Scarifying is the process of removing moss and old dead grass.
Nicholas Singo, the Tuskers general-manager
“We scarified at the end of the season, as I speak right now, it’s looking good, we are top soiling the pitches, so we have no problem with the square, it has been in use anyway so it’s just a matter of making some foot repairs here and there, besides that, everything is fine,’’ he said.
Ground staff digging up moles at Bulawayo Athletic Club
BAC will also see the sight screens being repaired while the changing rooms need some minor touch-ups.
On the deadline for the sprucing up, Singo had this to say “We are looking at finishing everything two weeks before the tournament starts because we can’t wait until the tournament begins so by one week before the end of this month, we should be done.”
At Queens, Singo indicated that besides the spectator stands, there is not much work that needs to be done since the facility was recently in use when Zimbabwe took on Namibia in five Twenty20 Internationals.
Singo called upon the local tourism sector to use this event to market the country to the international community.
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