06 Feb 2023

The senior women softball team is beaming with confidence ahead of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Africa qualifiers that start today.

Four countries: Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho and Kenya will take part in the qualifiers, but only two teams will proceed to the next stage.

In their first game, Botswana will face Lesotho at 10am today before facing South Africa in the evening.

Botswana’s captain, Bonolo Molefe, said in an interview that it was all system go for the team, adding they were ready for the battle.

She said morale was high and all the players were looking forward to the tournament.

Molefe said players were determined to make the country proud through positive results.

“We are not going to undermine any country, but we are not going to give them respect in the field and all of them should expect a fierce battle from us,” she said.

The national team coach, Phibion Tawina said the team was ready, healthy and injury free. The coach said looking at the competing countries, Botswana had a good chance to proceed to the next round.

“Yes, Lesotho is a closed book to us, because they are not consistent in attending the competition, but they can be dangerous because we do not know their style of play,” he said.

As for South Africa, ‘there is always rivalry between us’.

“The game could go either way, but looking at our preparations, I think we are going to prevail over them,” he said.

Talking about their clash against Kenya on Wednesday, Tawina said he managed to watch them training and they were equally a good side.

“We are going to approach this tournament with a winning mentality, our mission is to win all the games as we will be enjoying the home ground, in front of our spectators,” he said. ENDS