This is a concern because the team is flying off tomorrow (Wednesday) to participate in the Utsugi Cup in Takasaki city, Japan. The tournament will be played from June 28-29. The Utsugi Cup is an international Under-18 women’s annual tournament, which is meant to promote international exchange through softball. The head coach, Meshack ‘Shaka’ Bonang told SportMonitor that some of the players were struggling because of cold weather conditions. He said the performance had gone down, which means some of them have not been training. “Team selection was very hard. We were also pressed for time because of floods in February. The standard or calibre of players was low, but we have seen a lot of improvements throughout our training camps. Today we had some challenges but there is no time. However these are the same players that I have been depending on, it is not about ball sense, it is a physical challenge. They should recover psychically, they will be fine. As it stands right now, it is difficult to plan for Japan because I do not know my opponents or even countries that will be sending teams. At the moment, I can say we are going to play Japanese clubs, it is going to be difficult to win against them but I am sure we will score runs against them,” he said.
Bonang said they changed plans to resort to bunting if they cannot hit the ball. He said all the players will be playing in an international for the first time, and the plan is to have practice matches ahead of the tournament. “My players can hit the ball, it is all about maturity, it will take time but it will come with experience. The good thing about the team is that its age range is spread, with the youngest aged 15 years. My wish is for us to attend this tournament annually. My wish is for clubs to absorb the youngsters, they deserve to play at club level,” Bonang said.
