The brief ceremony marked a significant step in Ghana’s preparations to host a major international cricket tournament, an event expected to promote the sport, boost local tourism, and foster nationwide community engagement.

Speaking at the event, Mr. Adams highlighted the importance of the tournament within the country’s broader sports development agenda.

“Today’s inauguration signifies yet another key step in Ghana’s ongoing efforts to develop, promote, and leverage sports as a powerful tool for national progress and international engagement,” he said.

He also pointed to Ghana’s track record in hosting prestigious sporting events, citing the successful organisation of the 13th African Games as evidence of the country’s capability.

Chairman of the LOC, Mr. Nii Okai Evans Anfom, expressed gratitude to the Minister and the Ghana Cricket Association for entrusting the committee with the organisation of the competition.

“We are committed to working vigorously with all stakeholders to deliver a world-class tournament that will be remembered for its professionalism and excellence,” he said.

The tournament will feature six teams competing in a round-robin format, with each team playing the others once. The top two teams will advance to the Regional Qualifier, an essential step toward securing a place in the 2028 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

Participating countries include Ghana, Tanzania, Eswatini, Malawi, St. Helena, and Seychelles.

The seven-member LOC board comprises Mr. Nii Okai Evans Anfom, Mr. Nihal Abbas, Mr. Erasmus Douglas Djarbeng, Madam Evelyn Amerley Nuno-Amarteifio, Mr. Horen Quashigah, Mr. Samuel Ayer, and Madam Gifty Fianu.

With the inauguration of the LOC, Ghana moves closer to hosting what is expected to be a landmark event in African cricket, showcasing the nation’s organisational capacity and commitment to elevating the profile of the sport on the continent.

The tournament will feature six teams, including Ghana, Malawi, St. Helena, Eswatini, Seychelles, and Tanzania competing for the ultimate prize.

In a statement issued by the Ghana Cricket Association and signed by Mr Emmanuel Asare, President of the federation, the tournament will be played in a round-robin format with each team playing the other once.

He explained that the top two teams will eventually qualify to play in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Regional Qualifier which is a crucial step towards securing a spot in the 2028 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.

All games according to the statement will be played at the Achimota Cricket Ovals A & B, inside Achimota School, Accra.

He added that the tournament promises to be an exciting event, showcasing the best of African cricket. He called on all cricket enthusiasts to come and support their national team.

The proposal will now be put forward for ratification at the IOC session on Monday. Meanwhile, among the three core sports that were in 2021 left out of the “initial programme” for the 2028 Games, two, weightlifting and modern pentathlon, have fulfilled what was required of them to secure their places, while the decision on boxing remains on hold as the sport currently has no IOC-recognised international federation.

AMERICAN SPORTS CULTURE

The IOC President Thomas Bach said the proposal of the LA28 organisers was accepted because: “These sports are fully in line with the American sports culture. They will showcase an iconic American sports to the world, while bringing at the same time international sports to the United States.”

“Their inclusion will on the other hand allow the Olympic Movement to engage with new athletes and fan communities in the US and globally,” Bach added.

CRICKET

Regarding the inclusion of cricket, Bach was asked at the press conference how he “managed to persuade LA to accept cricket” as it is not a big sport in America, and what it means for the IOC.

“I can maybe reveal a secret that it did not take anything to convince them. The first idea came up and in the dinner I shared with Casey Wasserman (Chairman of LA 2028) on the occassion of the Athletics World Championships in Eugene last year and there Casey saw already the great potential and was highlighting it himself so there was not much work to do, if any.”

Bach explained that the growing popularity of cricket around the world, especially the T20 format, as well as the growing Indian community in the US make the inclusion of cricket very attractive for LA and the Olympic Movement. Following the ratification of the IOC Session in Mumbai, cricket would be returning to the Olympics after a 128-year absence. Cricket was played at the 1900 Olympics in Paris, when just two countries, England and France, played the lone match.
“This is a win-win situation. The Olympic Games will give cricket the global stage to grow beyond the traditional cricket countries and regions

FLAG FOOTBALL, LACROSSE AND SQUASH 

When asked about what impact the inclusion of flag football, lacrosse – which last appeared in 1908 – and squash would have, Bach replied: “We have seen these three sports at the World Games and as you know the IOC has a close cooperation and an MoU with the World Games and all these three sports had very successful performances at the World Games. On top of it they are reflecting different areas of American culture and sports culture. If you look at lacrosse, it’s the sport, if I may say, of the First Nations of the US. Squash has had significant growth in the US in the recent past and flag football is also enjoying a growing popularity, in particular among girls and women – because with flag football you’re avoiding some of the challenges and injuries faced in American football.”

Flag football, a variant of American football played as a five-on-five non-contact sport where, instead of tackling players to the ground, the defensive team must remove a flag or flag belt from the ball carrier to end a down. The 2022 World Games took place in the United States – in Birmingham, Alabama.

IOC REFORMS 

This concept of Olympic hosts proposing additional sports solely for their edition of the Games was introduced as part of the new process of establishing the Olympic programme, which was implemented in line with Olympic Agenda 2020 (adopted in December 2014).

The aim of the reform is “to enhance the popularity of the Games while ensuring that the numbers of athletes, and the cost and complexity of the event, remain manageable”.

Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee was the first to propose new sports and included five new sports for its edition of the Summer Games – surfing, karate, sports climbing, skateboarding and baseball/softball.

For Paris 2024, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing were approved again, and breaking will make its Olympic debut. Skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing were included as core sports in the LA 2028 programme, but breaking did not make the cut.

ATHLETE QUOTA

The IOC Sports Director, Kit McConnell, explained that with the inclusion of the five additional sports for LA28, four of which are team sports, the IOC athlete quota of 10,500 will definitely be surpassed, however, the OPC will work on ensuring that the final number remains reasonable and below the overall quota for Tokyo 2020.

McConnell said: “It is a package and the package fits together fantastically well in terms of target audiences, the types of sports, reaching out to different parts of the community around the country.

“In terms of the quota itself we have to be very clear that it is a package put forward by the Organising Committee for the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028 alone, so it is for that edition of the Games and doesn’t necessarily set the precedent for the future.

“Tokyo was the first time we had the OCOG propose sports and a team sport, baseball/softball, was part of that, and the whole package was above 10,500.

“In Paris because the package was comprised of four individual sports with relatively low quotas, that was inside the 10,500 so both of those reflected the context of the package.”

The programme of events and athlete quotas for LA28 will be finalised after Paris 2024.

NEW DISCIPLINE

Sixteen new disciplines were proposed by the International Federations with sports on the LA28 programme and following a holistic review only one was accepted. A critical consideration in the discipline review was maximising venue-sharing opportunities and leveraging existing, world-class venues and infrastructure in LA and the US.

The only change made to the LA28 discipline programme compared to Paris 2024, is the replacement of lightweight double sculls (men 2x and women 2x) events with beach sprint rowing, a format of the coastal rowing discipline, included on the Olympic programme for the first time. According to the IOC, the inclusion of beach sprint rowing is the outcome of a decade-long  only development of coastal rowing with the active support of rowing communities across the world.

The LA28 discipline programme has been finalised by the IOC EB and will not require any approval by the IOC Session.
MODERN PENTATHLON AND WEIGHTLIFTING

The place of modern pentathlon, a multi-discipline sport created by Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the Olympic movement, which has been a core Olympic event since 1912, was in danger after episodes of horse cruelty at the Tokyo 2020 Games.

However, the UIPM’s decision to replace riding with obstacle racing has now been acknowledged by the IOC EB. President Bach emphasised that “without the exchange of riding with obstacle racing the sport would not have been included in the programme.”

For weightlifting, which was plagued by its “historical incidence of doping”, the IOC is impressed with how the International Weightlifting Federation has tackled the issue by delegating its anti-doping management to the International Testing Agency and its sanctioning to the Court of Arbitration for Sport at least until the end of the year 2028.

“We could see their really robust anti-doping programme in place addressing our concerns.” Bach added.

BOXING

Following the expulsion of the International Boxing Association (IBA) from the Olympic Movement, there is currently no international boxing body affiliated with the IOC and as a result the IOC EB will decide on boxing’s inclusion in the LA28 sports programme at a later date.

“We want boxing on the programme, we have no problem with boxing, we have no problem with the boxers, we have just a huge problem with regard to the governing body,” Bach reiterated.

Credit: AIPS Media

Monday’s deserving victory saw Sierra Leone finally end their winless run against the Junior Yellow-Greens of Nigeria to get off to a flying start in the tournament.

It was the Junior Patriot side who won the toss and surprisingly opted to take the field and bowl first, which commenced the all-West Africa fight from the first delivery.

Sierra Leone’s George Sesay came along to deliver the new ball, and delivering such a heart-piercing swing he got one maiden, took four wickets, and slipped off for 32 dot balls with a bowling economy of 2.14.

With the pace set, Ibrahim Sesay, Raymond Coker and Aliya came in for 21 overs virtually evenly distributed and took six wickets between them with Coker grabbing the lion’s share of three.

The bowling power of Sierra Leone limited the Yellow-Greens to 73 runs all out in 27 overs with Paul Pam securing 22 runs off 45 balls ad their top scorer followed by Izuchukwu Okeke with 10 runs from 29 balls before Selim Salua hit 3 off 7 for 42.86 net run rate.

Knowing they’ve fielded we’ll, the Sierra Leonean lad knows only a discipline play from the crease will secure victory and end their winless run over the Nigerians and it was Alusine Turay and Raymond Coker’s partnership that pulled off a great run with the pair scoring 60 runs combined.

Alusine Turay was not out for 38 runs off 51 balls and finished as Sierra Leone’s top scorer while Coker smacked 22 off 55 balls before he was caught by Prosper Useni from Ridwan Abdulkareem’s delivery.

If Nigeria’s Osemi had not caught Raymond Coker out, Sierra Leone could have cruised to the enjoyable victory with all wickets spared, but Emmanuel Mansaray came in for 2 runs receiving one ball, the three collectively conceding 12 extras by posting 74 runs for the loss of one wicket in 17.5 overs, marching down to a 9-wicket win of a squad who train on a dusty oval with the stony outfield.

Raymond Coker won Player of the Match to seal the day.

Cricket analysts say this is the biggest win of the five times both nations have met in ICC-arranged business.

Up next, Sierra Leone will face bulldog Kenya on Tuesday, 25th July 2023 and rest on Wednesday before taking on Namibia on Thursday.

Credit: AIPS Media 

The national U-19 cricket team recorded their first victory in the New Year Invitational T20 league on Sunday, November 13, 2022 over Champions United Cricket Club at the Achimota Oval C.

Aziz Moin Uddin 28(37) stabilized the batting order for Champions United with some boundary 4’s and 6’s but things got worse for them when he was Caught by Ayoleyine on the 11.1 over from Emmanuel Kemevor’s delivery, as they stood at 53/3.

It was time to restrict and for the 1 hour, 27 minutes, Supreme was able to keep the Hurricanes at 109/9 to win by 29 runs.

Australia have named an unchanged squad from their Women’s Cricket World Cup triumph for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Australia were crowned 50-over World Cup winners for the seventh time in April, when they overcame England in the final in New Zealand.

Alyssa Healy was the top scorer and earned the player of the tournament honour, with her 129 and 170 runs in the semi-final and final proving crucial.

She will be part of the Australian squad for the Commonwealth Games, where women’s T20 cricket will debut at the multi-sport event.

Australian captain Meg Lanning and vice-captain Rachael Haynes will lead the squad, which also includes Darcie Brown, Nicola Carey, Ash Gardner and Grace Harris.

Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Tahlia McGrath, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland and Amanda-Jade Wellington complete the unchanged squad.

Cricket Australia has confirmed Perry is expected to only play as a batter at this stage, as she did in the World Cup final.

Perry is continuing her recovery from a lower-back stress fracture, with her availability as a bowler depending on progress and medical advice over the coming weeks.

Cricket is featuring at the Commonwealth Games for just the second time, after a men’s 50-over tournament was held during Kuala Lumpur 1998.

“To be there with athletes from badminton, squash, lawn bowls and a host of other sports is going to be a wonderful new experience for our players to embrace,” Lanning said.

“We’ve all grown up watching the Commonwealth Games on television, seeing Australian athletes inspire the rest of the country, and we’re hoping to do the same.”

Australia will be led by interim head coach Shelley Nitschke during the Commonwealth Games.

Nitschke takes up the position following the departure of Matthew Mott, who has been named as England men’s white-ball coach.

The Australian squad will meet for training camps at the National Cricket Centre in June.

The squad will travel to Northern Ireland for a tri-series against Ireland and Pakistan in the build-up to the Commonwealth Games.

The World Cup winners will face Barbados, India and Pakistan in Group A of the women’s tournament in Birmingham, with hosts England playing New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka in Group B.

The top two nations in each group will advance to the semi-finals, with medal matches then taking place on August 7.

Cricket matches will be held at Edgbaston during the Commonwealth Games.

Credit: Insidethegames

This is the third instalment of my campaign to honour our sports heroes as envisaged in 2004 by the late Hon Kwadwo Baah Wiredu, then Minister in charge of sports.

You may recall Mr Baah Wiredu set up a powerful seven body committee to identify the nation’s outstanding sports personalities and honour them by naming certain sports facilities after them and in addition create a sports hall of fame.

The committee worked assiduously and some of the recommendations gave us the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi; Azumah Nelson Sports Complex and D.G. Hathiramani Sports Hall both in Accra. Never mind Sports Director Ohene Djan’s name was forcibly removed by a gang of faceless hooligans and that was it. I know time will tell.

The committee headed by astute sports administrator, Dr Owusu Ansah and including yours truly, called for the establishment of a sports hall of fame and painstakingly named legends in the various sports disciplines to be honoured.

My first two articles dealt with the administrators to be honoured followed by the high performers in athletics, and table tennis. Today’s focus is on tennis, tae-kwan-do, hockey, cricket, amateur and professional boxing.

Top of the Tennis list is S.P.O. Kumi, an outstanding pioneer tennis player who represented Ghana in many international competitions especially along the West Coast.

Next is Odartey Annan, one of the finest post-independence players. He captained Ghana to many international laurels.

The last but not the least is Frank Ofori, the youngster who dominated men’s tennis in the late 80s and 90s. Incidentally he was the son of my good friend and colleague veteran sports journalist, Nelson Ofori of the Daily Graphic fame who later retired as PRO of the National Sports Authority.

For women’s tennis it’s Georgina Anim-Addo who also dominated women’s tennis in the 80s and 90s.

Tae-kwon-do has Anthony Amoo-Mensah who won gold medal in the fin-weight at the 1987 African Games in Nairobi, Kenya.
Anthony teamed up with Charles Hanson Adu who also won gold in the 1990 Africa Games in Cairo, Egypt.

Andy Sam tops the hockey legends’ list. The gentleman coached and captained the Ghana Armed Forces to win six championships. He also captained Ghana to win the African hockey championships in1974. He again captained the Ghana hockey team to the world cup in 1975 and was incidentally the top scorer.

Still on hockey, J.K. Atiemo, K.N. Owusu, Kwame Sarah-Mensah and Mrs Theodosia Okoh are picked as dedicated hockey players of high repute who promoted the image of Ghana internationally through the game of hockey.

Cricket has five great players of the game to get honours. They are Attoh Okine, Johnny Francois, J.J. Janney, E A. Haizel and Joel Hyde. Although Cricket was not a well patronised sport in the country these gentlemen made tremendous efforts to keep the game afloat here.

Amateur boxing highlights Ike Quartey Snr, silver medallist 1960 Rome Olympics as tops. He is followed by Eddie Blay, bronze medallist 1964 Tokyo Olympics; gold medallist 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth, Australia; another gold in 1966 Commonwealth Games in Kingston Jamaica.

Third on the list is Prince Amartey, Olympic bronze in the 1972 Games in Munich, Germany. The rest are Sulley Shittu, gold at the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Jamaica; and another gold in the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland.

7. Joe Darkey, gold medallist 1966 Commonwealth Games in Jamaica.
8. Flash Emma; gold 1970 Commonwealth Games in Scotland.
9. Raymond Narh, gold 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
10. Adama Mensah, gold 1978 Africa Games in Algeria.
11. Steve Dotse; gold 1990 Africa Games in Cairo, Egypt.

The professional boxing category comprises Surpriser Sowah, an outstanding pioneer of professional boxing in Ghana. He unearthed many champions including D.K Poison the acclaimed Ghana’s first world featherweight champion.

2. Vincent Okine; affectionately called ‘London Kid’ one of the greatest pound for pound boxers the nation has produced.

3. Billy Wells: The only Ghanaian boxer to hold every title from welterweight to heavyweight in the 50s.

3. Roy Ankrah; dirst Ghanaian Commonwealth featherweight champion. Popularly called ‘The Black Flash,’ he really raised the national flag in the pre-independence days. On retirement from the ring, he became national coach and produced two Olympians, Ike Quartey Snr and Eddie Blay. He also produced numerous Africa and Commonwealth Games medallists in the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth, Australia under Roy Ankrah. Ghana was adjudged the best Commonwealth amateur boxing nation with two gold and four silver medals.

4. Floyd Robertson. First Ghanaian to fight for the world featherweight title. Even though he lost in a hotly disputed verdict to Sugar Ramos in Accra in 1964, he continued to be ranked one of the best boxers in his generation. On retirement from the ring he assisted in unearthing a lot of budding talents for the nation.

5. Attuquaye Clottey: One of the busiest boxers in his generation. He was repeatedly robbed in fights at his adopted base in Australia. Indeed, he successfully sold the name of Ghana in faraway Australia. Back home on retirement, he established a boxing club at Bukom Square in Accra known as Akotoku Academy where a number of talented boxers were produced. He is on record as the man who steered D.K. Poison to become the first Ghanaian world featherweight champion with a convincing points victory over Mexican Reuben Olivares in Los Angeles in 1975. As a matter of interest, yours truly was at the ringside that night to cover the event for the Daily Graphic.

6. D.K. Poison: First Ghanaian to win the world featherweight title. Unfortunately, after a successful title defence against Fukuyama in Japan, he lost painfully at home to Danny ‘Little Red’ Lopez in Accra in November 1976.

7. Azumah Nelson. A long reigning world champion and former Africa and Commonwealth Games gold medallist who was acknowledged as one of the top ten pound for pound professional boxers in the world.

8. Ike Bazooka Quartey, hard hitting WBA world welterweight champion who reigned for three years.

9. Nana Yaw Konadu. He was known as the fighting computer for his speed and dexterity. He won the WBC flyweight championship in 1989 against Gilberto Roma of Mexico only to lose it a few months later to Sung Kim Moon of South Korea.

Dear readers this ends the third batch of selected heroes for the proposed Hall of Fame.

The next and final instalment will cover football the acknowledged passion of the nation.

It must be noted that this list was compiled in 2004. It should not be taken as the final list because the exercise of identifying sports heroes would always be ongoing and possibly inexhaustible. For instance since 2004 the nation has got one more heroic Olympian in boxer Samuel Takyi at Tokyo 2020. I am expecting the football list to attract a lot of attention for obvious reasons.

Till we meet again. Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.

Credit: Ken Bediako

The Rare Queens qualified to play Sierra Leone on Sunday, April 3 for the 3rd place game, after the later beat Gambia on Saturday April 2, 2022.

Ghana, having already lost once to the Lady Cricket Patriots by 87 runs won the toss and elected to bat first and scored 90/1 in 20 overs, with captain Rhyda Amanfo Ofori 24(20) and Felicia Serwaa 16(13) being the top performers.

Sierra Leone needed 13.4 overs to score 91/0 and win the game by 10 wickets to emerge bronze medalists. Fatu Pessima with 4-0-14-4, was adjudged the player of the match.

Ghana, have now lost four times against Sierra Leone, twice at the just ended tournament and twice at the 2015 NWACC tourney in Gambia. Ghana however hold a single win against the Lady Cricket Patriots, which was in the 2018 edition of NWACC held at the Achimota Oval, Accra.

Ghana head coach, Obed Harvey in a post-match interview admits, they have picked a lot of positives from the tournament.

“Overall, it has been an okay performance across board. There are positives that we would take from a positive note, as in participating and getting exposed to how competitive we can be when we step up,” he said.

“We can perform well, if we put ourselves together and put things in place, preparation, getting the girls to understand that, now it all relies on us and how strong we can exhibit our knowledge and awareness in cricket,” Coach Harvey added.

“So far, it has been okay, not the best we were hoping for. This team is in the building stage that we have to give credit to that fact that it is a process and we have to trust the process and make it look much better when the time comes,” the Team Ghana cricket coach affirmed.

The one-week tournament organized by the Nigeria Cricket Federation saw Rwanda taking revenge on the hosts to win the ultimate, while Nigeria picked silver medals at a colorful closing ceremony, right after the finals.

Rwanda, who lost by 3 runs, in their earlier game took Nigeria all out for 76 runs in the second innings after they have scored 129/5 in the first innings, to win by 53 runs.

Rwandan won the best batter accolade with a total of 162 runs and a strike rate of 115.71 from 4 innings.

In the batting performance, Ghana’s Felicia Serwaa ended 6th with a total of 56 runs and a strike rate of 74.67, while compatriot Kate Awuah, with 45 runs from 5 innings, finished 8th.

This has been the third international tournament for the senior women’s cricket team and definitely a tournament with great lessons to pick home as the development of girls’ cricket in Ghana keeps growing.

Team Ghana are expected to touch down at the Kotoka International Airport, terminal 3 at 9am on Monday, April 4, 2022.

Credit: #TalksenseSports

Ghana, having lost to Rwanda and Sierra Leone in their two opening matches went into the game with all in them and delivered.

After winning toss, Ghana scored a remarkable 149/6, the highest score so far in the tournament, with Felicia Serwaa 28(28), scoring the first boundary 6 in the 16.6 over.

The rare queens started well, with Elizabeth Annor and Rashidatu Salia, whose partnership produced 42/0 in 5 overs. The Gambia did well in the next 5 overs, reducing the run rate of Ghana, who stood at 74/2. Ghana increased the pace and got 112 runs, although they dropped 2 more wickets at the end of 15 overs.

Contributing to Ghana’s total score of 149/6 include Elizabeth Annor 19(23), Rashidatu Salia 19(32), Kate Awuah 15(14), Miriam Eshun 10(18), Asumadu Rozabel *6(9) and Fati Bawa *5(5).

In the second innings, Ghana restricted Gambia to 43/10 in 11 overs and won the game by 106 runs.

The bowling figures had Janet Alaare (3-0-9-3), and Beatrice Oduro (2-0-4-2), while Miriam Eshun (1-0-4-1) and Kate Awuah (2-0-13-1) got the other wickets. Janet, was playing his first game in Lagos after missing the Rwanda and Sierra Leone matches.

Gambia’s Sosseh Sano with bowling figures was good on the day but Felicia Serwaa, with her batting performance, was adjudged Player of the match. She was presented with a cash prize of $100 plus an award which was received on her behalf by team mate Ellen Otu Asante, as she was hurt.

“I feel happy and proud to have won this player of the match. I got a little knock; I would have done better but in all I thank God for what I could do. We had to win this to make a case for ourselves,” Serwaa told TalksenseSports.

Ghana lie 4th on the table with 2 points and will play host Nigeria on Friday, April 1, at 9:30 local time (8:30 GH Time) in their final round robin game, as they rest on Thursday.

Ghana will hope for a qualification in the 3rd place match on Sunday, April 3.

In their all-time meetings, Ghana have now won once out of the 3, against Gambia.

Credit: #TalksenseSports

Ghana, having won toss elected to field first, allowing Rwanda to score 135/9, with the likes of Giselle Ishimwe 37(29), and Bimenyimana Marie Diane 26(18) making the most runs for the Rwandans.

Young chap, Miriam Eshun took 2 wickets in her first over, with a total of (2-0-20-3) placing her second in the bowling figures, as Rwanda’s Vumilia Margueritte (4-0-7-4) was adjudged the Player of the Match ultimately.

Rwanda, after staring slowly, scoring 24/1 in 5 overs, increased the tempo and scored 64/3 in 10 overs, 102/5 in 15 overs until they achieved 135/9 in 20 overs.

In the second innings, Ghana lost 4 wickets in the first 3 overs, with the likes of Elizabeth Annor, Rashida Salia, Felicia Serwaa and Cynthia Ankobea Konadu falling. The rare queens pushed for glory, scoring 18/6 in 5 overs, 41/7 in 10 overs and finally wrapping up at 54/9 in 14.2 overs, while captain Rhyda Amanfo Ofori retired hurt.

Speaking briefly to TalksenseSports after the game, Head Coach Obed Harvey attributed the loss to missing of critical moments to be on top.

“We found ourselves in difficult positions when we missed critical moments to be on top of the game so it came back hurting us. We lost it from missed chances like dropping catches and decision making in batting.”

Ghana will bounce back to their originally scheduled fixtures, to play Sierra Leone at 1:50pm local time (12:50 GH Time) on Tuesday, March 29, before their 3rd match with Gambia, same time on Wednesday.

They will wrap up the single round robin to determine their place against host Nigeria on Friday, at 9:30am (8:30am GH Time).

Meanwhile, it is unclear whether captain Rhyda Ofori will be fit for tomorrow’s encounter against Sierra Leone.

In the other game, Nigeria whose game against Sierra Leone was moved to afternoon today, due to the late arrival of the latter, were 41 runs victors. Nigeria scored 131/3 and limited Sierra Leone to 90/6.

Credit: #TalksenseSports