JERSEY continue along the long road towards a possible place in the World Cup qualifier next April with the start of the World Cricket League Division IV tournament tomorrow against hosts Tanzania.
And the Jersey squad know that to continue with their World Cup dream they must either win the six-team tournament in Dar Es Salaam or finish as runners-up. They are in no doubt that they will face stiff tests against the likes of Tanzania, Hong Kong, Afghanistan, Italy and Fiji, the latter who they defeated in a practise match by 77 runs on Wednesday.
Yesterday Jersey were beaten by eight runs in a Twenty/20 game against a Tanzanian Development XI, a game where Jersey retired batters to give others a chance to play with the final result of no consequence. Jersey’s win against Fiji will count for nothing tomorrow as they open their round-robin programme against Tanzania and hopefully the momentum built up this summer, having finished runners-up in the WCL Division V in May and in winning the European Division II Championship title in Guernsey in August, will be with them again.
Jersey must finish in the top two positions in Division IV to continue their progress and to reach the World Cup qualifier next April they will then have to finish in the first two places in the Division III tournament, which takes place in Buenos Aires in Argentina late in January next year. Jersey coach Peter Kirsten (pictured) said: ‘We’ve had two really good practise games and shortly it will be all systems go. The boys are acclimatising well and looking forward to a big weekend coming up.’
