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THE senior men’s national cricket team, the Chevrons will have to take part in African qualifiers to earn a ticket at the 2026 International Cricket Council T20 World Cup tournament due to poor recent results.
Zimbabwe are not part of the current ICC T20 World Cup tournament in the United States and West Indies after finishing a disappointing third in the Africa qualifiers staged in Namibia where only the top two teams qualified.
ICC Associate members Namibia and Uganda progressed to the tournament, at the expense of Zimbabwe, but are both on their way home after finishing fourth in their respective five-team groups in the opening round.
Automatic qualifiers for the 2026 tournament being jointly staged by India and Sri Lanka were confirmed yesterday as Bangladesh became the final team to join the Super Eight stage of the ongoing showcase.
India and Sri Lanka qualified as hosts while Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, South Africa, US, and the West Indies secured their tickets by making the Super Eight stage of the 2024 tournament.
Finally, Ireland, New Zealand, and Pakistan qualified based on the men’s T20I team rankings as Zimbabwe were pushed aside by the USA’s surprise progress at this year’s event.
The Chevrons would have benefited from the rankings by being 12th placed on the team rankings had it not been for the humbling at the African qualifiers, the series against Bangladesh in the build-up to this year’s tournament, and the US’s miracle.
Now they will be back in the Africa qualifiers for the tickets, whose number will only be confirmed after the ongoing tournament. The Chevrons will be battling it out with Namibia and Uganda again while the likes of Kenya, Tanzania, and Nigeria will be eyeing surprise tickets, depending on what the ICC allocates Africa via the qualifying tournament.
Online Reporter