On Learning the Ropes… Liberia Seeks help from Sierra Leone to expedite ICC-Affiliate Membership
The Chairman of the Liberia National Cricket Federation (LNCF), Roopesh Ram, met with senior officials from the Sierra Leone Cricket Association (SLCA) over the weekend on the need to expedite processes leading to becoming an ICC-affiliate member and to strengthen the Mano River bond.
Present at the meeting were the Chairman of SLCA, Francis Trevor Samura; Abu Bakarr Kargbo, SLCA Board Member; Daniel Koroma, Chief Operating Officer; and members of the SLCA Media Team.
Addressing senior officials from SLCA, Chairman Ram said the LNCF is yet to become a member of the ICC. “This is partly the reason I am here to cooperate with your chairman to help push our case at the ICC. Already, we have clubs that are presently playing in the Liberia Premier League (LPL).
These clubs have players from India. And very recently, we signed two players from Sierra Leone [Abass Gbla and Cherenoh Bah] to make the league more competitive,” he revealed.
Going forward, Chairman Ram said they are looking forward to creating a national team to enter the ICC-sanctioned competitions.
“Aside from the league, we are presently embarking on schools Cricket and the construction of Cricket grounds and other facilities. So while awaiting ICC co-option, we want our clubs to be playing club series with clubs in Sierra Leone”.
“At the start, we will travel to Sierra Leone to play games over the weekend and return to Liberia,” he explained, assuring Chairman Samura that the Liberia Government is in full support to see cricket play.
In response, SLCA Chairman Samura thanked his counterpart for the effort to see cricket play in Liberia. He said he has been to Liberia once on ICC-assigned role to assess the state of cricket. “This was after I had been to Ivory Coast to introduce cricket there. Today, Ivory Coast is an affiliate member of ICC,” he told Chairman Ram, adding that Liberia needs to meet ICC criteria among which is having cricket ovals, a constitution and an office space.
He then promised to take the matter up with the North West Africa Cricket Council (NWACC) and the Africa
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