SENIOR national cricket team is determined to make the most of its participation in this year's ICC Africa Division One Twenty20 qualifier, which is scheduled to start in the Ugandan capital, Kampala on Sunday.

Five teams will compete for the top spot at this year's edition of the competition with the champion joining Namibia as Africa's representative at the ICC's penultimate round in the UAE. The competition will be held at the National Cricket Stadium, Kampala, with Tanzania battling with Kenya, Nigeria and Botswana for the sole ticket from the event.

The local team has been training intensively for the past few months to shape up for the tournament and there is no doubt they are going to work extremely hard with a view to qualifying for the UAE event. Tanzania team has a blend of youth and experience and this will augur well for them at the tournament.

We expect the team's recent participation in big tournaments such as ICC World League Division 4 in Malaysia as well as a series of international friendly matches will play crucial role in building confidence on players and nothing but success is expected from them.

The tournament will also be an ideal platform for Tanzania players to prove their mettle and show the world the vast talents that this country is endowed with but somehow failed to nurture in the past due to numerous problems including bickering among cricket officials.

Such problems are now a thing of the past and indeed the TCA deserves a pat on the back for putting its house in order and concentrate to promote the sport from the grassroots. The good job the TCA has been doing in the past decade continues to pay dividends as attested by the many young talents who now play the sport.

The TCA has been working hard to shed the sport of its elitist image by promoting cricket in schools and encouraging children irrespective of their races to take up the sport, which not long ago was largely seen as a preserve of only a certain race.

And indeed, the ICC must have taken note of the progress being made by the country in promoting the sport. And, the fact that several local players have continued to secure lucrative deals to feature for British teams during the past few years is further proof of the sport's development. The challenge for TCA is to sustain the good job and spread the sport all over the country. We would like to wish our envoys a successful campaign in the tournament.