All Set for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifiers

The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifiers will be hosted for the first time ever in Botswana from 9-19 September.

The African qualifiers is a pathway to the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup qualifiers, where eleven teams will compete to stand a chance to feature in the women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa in 2023.

Host nation Botswana and Cameroon will be competing in an ICC women’s event for the very first time, alongside Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Rwanda, Namibia, Tanzania, Nigeria, Eswatini, Sierra Leone, and Uganda. Only the top team will progress to the ICC women T20 World Cup qualifiers next year.

Of the 11 teams participating, Zimbabwe starts the tournament as the top-ranking team (12) on the MRF Tyres ICC Women’s T20 team rankings and go into the event in fine form having played Thailand in Harare last month.

Namibia will also be feeling quite confident going into the Africa qualifiers, having finished as runners-up in the 2021 Kwibuka Women’s T20 tournament in Rwanda three months ago.

Teams have been divided into two groups. Group A consists of Botswana, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Rwanda. Group B which is the group of death has Namibia, Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Cameroon.

The game between Rwanda and Mozambique will kick-start the ICC Women’s T20 Africa Cup qualifiers at 9:15 am on Thursday, 9 September. A super clash between 2018 runners-up Namibia and Uganda is scheduled to start at 9:30 am. Botswana vs Eswatini and Nigeria vs Sierra Leone will conclude day one fixtures.

Fixtures

Thursday, 9 September

 

9:15 am – Rwanda vs Mozambique

9:30 am – Namibia vs Uganda

2:15 pm – Botswana vs Eswatini

2:30 pm – Nigeria vs Sierra Leone

 

Friday, 10 September

9:15 am – Tanzania vs Zimbabwe

9:30 am – Cameroon vs Uganda

2:15 pm – Botswana vs Mozambique

2:30 pm – Namibia vs Nigeria

 

Saturday, 11 September

9:15 am – Eswatini vs Zimbabwe

9:30 am – Cameroon vs Sierra Leone

2:15 pm – Mozambique vs Tanzania

2:30 pm – Nigeria vs Uganda

 

Sunday, 12 September

9:15 am – Eswatini vs Rwanda

9:30 am – Botswana vs Zimbabwe

 

Monday, 13 September

9:15 am – Rwanda vs Tanzania

9:30 am – Cameroon vs Nigeria

2:15 pm – Mozambique vs Zimbabwe

2:30 pm – Namibia vs Sierra Leone

 

Tuesday, 14 September

9:15 am – Eswatini vs Tanzania

9:30 am – Cameroon vs Namibia

2:15 pm – Botswana vs Rwanda

2:30 pm – Sierra Leone vs Uganda

 

Thursday, 16 September

9:15 am – Mozambique vs Eswatini

9:30 am – Rwanda vs Zimbabwe

2:15 pm – Botswana vs Tanzania

 

Friday, 17 September

9:15 am – First semi-final

2:15 pm – Second semi-final

 

Saturday, 18 September

9:15 am – Third place play-off

2:15 pm – Final

 

ICC has developed an ongoing risk management process to monitor and mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the host and participants. They have also partnered with IMG Media, in a partnership that will see all games being streamed live on ICC digital platforms.

 

Photo 1 Caption: The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifiers will be hosted for the first time ever in Botswana from 9-19 September. Photo: Supplied