Cricket in ZAMBIA
Hi friends in this article let us discuss about the crickets development in one of the African countries, Zambia
History
Zambia was previously called as Northern Rhodesia, and the main reason for cricket being introduce in this country was from neighbouring Zimbabwe (which was previously called as Southern Rhodesia).
Cricket was first ever introduced in the year in the early 1900s. But the speed of its development was very low as number of British settlers was less in Zambia hwen compared to that in Zimbabwe
But in spite of this slow rate of development, the Marylebone Cricket Club(MCC) travelled to Livingstone, which is the main city in Zambia, in December 1930 when they toured the souther Africa.
The MCC was able to Zambia easily by 9 wickets in their first international match.To be specific this match was played on December 11, 1930, at Bharat ground.
But the organized cricket in the then territory of Zambia was firmly established in the late 1950`s and this led to the formation of the Rhodesia cricket union (NRCU).
For more than 40 years the game was under the control of expatriates and the local people here were not encouraged at first, to take part in either the playing or administrative aspects of the game.
But this situation slowly change and between 1980-85, three distinct attempts were been made, so as to redress the situation where the under privileged youngsters in Zambia can be brought into the cricket development scene.
At the same time, the former chairman of the Zambia Cricket Union had the foresight to become a founder member of the newly formed zonev1 cricket federation of central and southern Africa in the year 1991 and later in 1996, this transformed into the Africa Cricket Association (ACA)
In 1995, the school development programs was started and it was headed by the development manager.This program has seen more than 5000 children playing the game of cricket from a cross section of government, private and community schools in the country and this has made a positive impact and cricket started to develop in Zambia
International Competition
Even though they are not giver ODI status for their team, the ZCU today has a reliable u13, 15, 17 and 19 development teams and they actively and competitively participate in the named leagues in both government and private schools.But however the girls league is yet to kick off in Zambia
Zambia hosted the first ever International event in 2001, and the event is "5 National ICC U 15" tournaments.It was a good result for the host team as Zambia finished 3rd.
But they progressed in a better way and came Second in a similar tournament which was held in Gaborone Botswana, where Zambia emerged 2nd from Namibia.Apart from Zambia the other countries which took part in this tournament includes Malawi and Lesotho.
The development was at a rapid rate and in 2002 Zambia hosted the Africa Cup Cricket Tournament which featured 10 countries and these includes
1)Zambia
2)Zimbabwe
3)Nigeria
4)Malawi
5)Namibia
6)South Africa 'A'
7)Botswana
8)Kenya
9Tanzania and
10)Uganda.
In this event the powerul South Africa 'A' team has emerged as the overall winners.
Apart from this Zambia also participated in the ICC U19 tournament in South Africa which featured 8 countries and Zambian players played tremendous cricket throughout the tournament and their performance was appreciated by many.
The Zambian players played together as a team and they were determined and above all they played to win. Zambia also participated in the WCQS in Malaysia for the first time and the team's performance was very good in spite of their loss in some games
Domestic Competition
The Midlands Cricket Association has three leagues which are being played and nearly 15 teams take part in the 'A' league and 10 teams in the 'B' league.A very competitive cricket was played in both the leagues and the first round of the league fixtures ended in June and second round started on the 7th July 2007, during the 2007 - 2008 calender year
But the Copperbelt has only the u15 and u19 schools leagues going on and a senior league is yet to be commenced and steps are taken for the commencement of the senior league also
Regional Development
There has been a tremendous response from the children and teachers in schools, since the introduction of cricket in Zambia and at present there has been over 80 schools which take part in this development programs.
These schools includes government, community and private schools.The most important hing is that cricket is being played competitively amongst these schools and the Cricket development had a great impacyt as it brought about a lot of cricket activities in the country having a full u13, 15, 17 and 19 teams comprising of 98% Zambian citizens.
Apart from this every year an inter-provincial tournament is held and it is mainly conducted to assess the players and to see how far their skills have developed compared to when they started the development programme.
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