By Denis Musali 

Michael Grace Ndiko has landed a great opportunity as coach of the Global Development squad. Micheal was chosen out of a number of other associate nation coaches that took part in the ladies World Cup qualifiers and Michael is the current coach of the Lady Cricket Cranes. 

Fortune always favors the prepared and this opportunity comes at a time when Michael has completed his level three coaching course in South Africa and was also part of the high-performance training in Namibia early this year. 

The primary aim of the Women’s Global Development Squad program is to provide the opportunity for high-performing players outside the ICC Women’s Championship to develop their skills, ensuring women’s cricket continues to go from strength to strength. We aim to bridge the competitive gap between those who play in a formalized regular international competition and those who play international cricket less frequently. 

The program will achieve this by:

  • Guaranteeing competitive match opportunities for players;
  • Providing a coaching placement for two team coaches;
  • Exposing players to T20 franchise teams, who may consider picking them in the future as overseas players; and
  • Building a sustainable partnership with Full Members to ensure the longevity of the program.

The players who are part of this squad have been selected from the teams that will be competing at the Global Women's World Cup qualifier in Scotland. Unfortunately, the four ladies selected from Zimbabwe will miss out due to ICC sanctions. Michael Ndiko will leave the country on July 26th to join up with the rest of the squad in the UK. The training program will include warm-up games against the Franchise T20 teams, Elite training, personal development, and communication training. 

The program will run from July 26th to August 4th.  

The WGDS squad: Javeria Khan (Pakistan, captain), Jahanara Alam, Fargana Hoque (both Bangladesh), Christina Gough (Germany), Celeste Raack (Ireland), Denise van Deventer (Netherlands), Brenda Tau, Ravini Oa (both PNG), Abtaha Maqsood, Hannah Rainey, Becky Glen (all Scotland), Sugetha Kalyanaraman Chandhrasekar (USA). Coach: Michael Ndiko (Uganda); Mentor coach: Laura Macleod (England).

For additional information https://www.icc-cricket.com/news/1293091