02 Jun 2026

The Botswana senior men’s cricket team, affectionately known as the Baggy Blues, can, despite missing out on a berth in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Africa Regional Final, take immense pride in a campaign filled with stellar performances and historic milestones. 

The team launched their tournament in spectacular fashion, putting together a flawless four-match winning streak that left opponents reeling. 

Their dominant run included a 70-run opening victory over Sierra Leone, a crushing 10- wicket thrashing of Mali, a comprehensive 71-run win against Cameroon and a commanding 231-run victory over Côte d’Ivoire. 

However, back-to-back losses late in the tournament halted their roaring momentum. The team fell by 62 runs to continental powerhouse Kenya before suffering a heart-breaking, narrow two-run defeat against Rwanda. 

Despite falling just short of qualification, head coach, Stanley Timoni, expressed satisfaction with his players’ overall growth, noting that the team improved with each passing game. He did, however, admit that tactical execution faltered in the final two crucial matches. 

Timoni reflected that against Kenya, the bowling lacked discipline, conceding too many loose balls and leaving the batters with an uphill task to chase down a target of 198. 

Conversely, he praised the bowling unit’s bounce-back performance against Rwanda, revealing the strategic high-stakes gamble that ultimately cost them the game. 

He explained that had they won, three teams would have finished on 10 points. Because they needed a superior net run rate to qualify, the team tried to push for a victory within 19 overs, believing that they would wrap up the game early. 

Nonetheless, the coach remained confident in his squad, saying that the key to matching Africa’s elite teams was securing more international exposure. Team captain, Karabo Motlhanka echoed the coach’s optimism, saying that Botswana played high-quality cricket throughout the tournament. 

Motlhanka noted that they lost to two good teams ranked in the top 10 in Africa, adding that competition in African cricket was tough right now as many countries were pushing hard and rapidly improving. To keep pace, he urged a fundamental shift in how Botswana approaches its long-term preparation, advocating for structured, year-round training even during the off-season. 

He pointed to the Rwanda team as an example, where some young players had already played almost 100 matches, proving that continuous play made a big difference. 

Motlhanka highlighted that Botswana was geographically well-positioned to solve the issue given its proximity to major cricketing nations like South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe. 

He argued that Botswana should be leveraging the expertise of its neighbours to keep players in the groove even when there was no upcoming tournament, identifying the consistent game time as the main element currently lacking to move the program forward. 

Meanwhile, while the team results fell short of the ultimate goal, the tournament bore witness to a historic individual achievement as Motlhanka became the first-ever Motswana to score a T20 International century. 

The captain shared that it was a proud moment, made even sweeter by accomplishing it on home soil. The intense seven-nation tournament featured Botswana, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Mali, Rwanda and Sierra Leone. 

Ultimately, Rwanda and Kenya finished as the top two teams, successfully advancing to the Regional Final where they would battle for a highly coveted spot in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. ends