17 Dec 2020

Botswana will host the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup qualifiers next year.

Eleven African countries, Cameroon, Namibia, Nigeria, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe and Botswana will battle it out for a ticket to the Women’s T20 World Cup to be hosted by South Africa in 2023.

Botswana, Cameroon and Malawi will be making their debut in the event. Botswana Cricket Association secretary, Sumod Damodar said Botswana had submitted its bid to host the  African qualifiers for the Women’s T20 World  Cup.

He noted that Africa, unlike other continents, had 11 teams. Europe has six teams which are: France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Turkey and Scotland.

America has Argentina, Brazil, Canada and the United States of America while the Asian countries are made up of Malaysia, Bhutan, China, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Myanmar, Nepal and the United Arab Emirates.

Samoa will host the East Asia-Pacific qualifiers and will host Cook Island, Fiji, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.  Damodar noted that only one team from Africa would qualify for the World Cup.

Concerning their preparations to host the event, Damodar said they would be monitoring the situation in respect to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“All in all we are prepared to host, but we can be better prepared and implement what needs to be done as time goes on,” he said.

He said all African teams were in the T20 rankings of the ICC, adding that it was going to be a tough and exciting tournament

According to the ICC website, the five regions will host a regional qualifying event with the top team from each region joining the bottom two ranked teams in the Women’s T20I rankings as of  November 30, 2021. The bottom two ranked teams from the Women’s T201 competed at the Australia 2020 event.

The final position will be filled by the highest ranked team in the regional qualifiers on the November cut-off date. The website said the ICC board has approved a detailed COVID-19 contingency plan. ENDS