The Sierra Leone Cricket Association (SLCA) has announced that they will introduce the contracting of players in April this year.

The Chairman of the Cricket Association, Francis Trevor Samura said the move is to ensure that players remain committed and fully involved to improve the game.

“Players who finally meet the threshold will be contracted for six months,” Samura said.

The Association said that the contracting of players will ensure stability and security among players which they believe will in turn lead to better performance on the field.

They added that it will also give teams the ability to retain their best players and also help boost young and upcoming players.

The new system will be divided into three categories; A, B, and C. The Association said that the A category will include senior players that are regular for the men’s and women’s senior sides while category B will cover U-19 players and C to focus on emerging talents in the country.

Cricket, although a very old sport in Sierra Leone, has been in the doldrums due to a lack of financing. The sport, however, has enjoyed more success than other sports in the West African nation.

In other news, the country’s female cricket team is set to participate in the T20 tournament in Nigeria. The Ladies Patriot will play their first test against Nigeria on Monday before playing Ghana on Tuesday and Rwanda the following day.

The female team was successful in 2015 and 2016 when they won Africa Cricket Conference in The Gambia and Cameroon back-to-back.