Cricket Sierra Leone Limited, has recently made immense changes with the appointment of recent personnel to serve in various capacities as coaches and team managers as it pleases the Board.
One stunning appointment was the appointment of Abass Gbla as the Under-19 head coach. Abass Gbla has been one of Sierra Leone’s magnificent cricketers, who has helped bring so many laurels to Sierra Leone.
Abass as a young talented coach before taking up national coaching duty had been an outstanding player with a barrage of records to his name, at an early age after being named the U-15 best player in Nigeria in 2010, he had his first senior team call-up that same year and is still actively contributing to the side, an all-rounder who was named the second best player in South Africa, Benoni in 2014, his record still stand as the only player to have taken 17 wickets in a tournament for Sierra Leone, some individuals awards to his name include, 3 Gold medals, 6 Silver medals, 4 Bronze medals as well 12 man of the match at International level. His beast mode has earned him a bowler of the series award and a man of the series award.
With all of these success stories, Abass Gbla taught it fit to take up the mantle of coaching in enhancing the growth of cricket and passing on his experience to young cricketers who will be playing for the nation.
Mr. Gbla is very much confident about his appointment as he describes it as the beginning of a new chapter in his sporting career. He also reaffirmed his wealth of experience in coaching and added that he would still be learning as he progresses, with a foundational Coaching Certified Certificate, once had a Level 1 and 2 ACA Certified Coach before ICC changed them, but that did not stop his passion for coaching as he is currently undergoing another ICC Level 1 Coaching Certificate.
Drifted by the passion for the game and coaching, Abass cited that he was an assistant coach for the U19 side that played the ICC U19 men’s Cricket World Cup Africa Division 2 Qualifier that took place in Abuja, Nigeria 2022 and qualified for the Division 1 level.
As a friendly personality, he opted to work on the mental strength of his boys and teach them many more responsibilities, and now that he is in charge he doesn’t have much to change in the team, just has to work on what they had been lacking.