ZIMBABWE Cricket Under-19 coach Steve Mangongo has expressed satisfaction with the amount of game time his charges are being subjected to as they build up for the 2018 ICC World Cup.

A busy schedule for the Zimbabwe Under-19 team continues as they are set to host Namibia for a five-match Youth One Day International series in Harare starting from April 21.

This year only, Zimbabwe Under-19 youths have been to Namibia, Malaysia and South Africa, for bilateral series and also a tri-series involving Sri Lanka.

After hosting Namibia this month, Zimbabwe will also welcome the West Indies in July before heading out to Australia later in the year. This is a bumper harvest of cricket that any coach would ever ask for.

“We are happy with the progress of the journey to the World Cup which we have embarked on for more than one-and-a-half years,” Mangongo told H-Metro.

“There is a full dossier of cricket for the youngsters to make sure they play enough game time because you never buy game time, exposure and experience so that is our endeavour. So yes so far so good.”

At the 2016 World Cup, Zimbabwe showed a lot of promise and got the attention of the cricket world with their performances.

Zimbabwe can only build more on these displays with more game time that will keep the local teenagers at par with other nations.

“In the past we have always said we don’t have enough game time but this time around Zimbabwe Cricket has ran around to organise superb fixtures, superb training times, superb international fixtures which are very important for the guys to be able to withstand the heat.

“They need to be able to test their skills amongst other international Under-19 players and at the moment the guys are doing so,” he said.

Mangongo’s Under-19 project has already beared fruits with players like Richard Ngarava, Ryan Murray, Brandon Mavuta, Jeremy Ives, Rugare Magarira, Blessing Muzarabani and William Mashinge making it for national structures for the Zimbabwe Academy, Zimbabwe A and Zimbabwe