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ZIMBABWE coach Dave Houghton wants an Africa Cup of Nations-style cricket championship to help develop the sport on the continent.
The southern Africans not only made it through qualifying to reach the ongoing T20 World Cup’s Super 12 stage, but then stunned Pakistan in thrilling fashion on Thursday.
With Namibia opening the tournament by beating Sri Lanka, and South Africa a continual threat at the highest level, Houghton wants an all-encompassing T20 Africa Cup to firmly develop the sport.
“I would love nothing more than to have a (full) African Cup,” Houghton told BBC Sport Africa. At present, the continent’s top-tier cricket nations – South Africa and Zimbabwe – do not take part in the event.
“I really do think it’s time we got ourselves together – all the cricket nations in Africa – and talked about the chance of having that,” the 65-year-old added.
“Asia play the Asia Cup and they’re all just getting more and more exposure at a good level. I’m hoping it’s not too far off when we can match what they do in Asia and have an Africa Cup and our own little independent sort of ‘World Cup’.”
Last month, the African Cricket Association (ACA) staged the inaugural T20 Africa Cup, which was contested by International Cricket Council (ICC) associate members alone – with the ACA having decided against involving Test nations such as South Africa and Zimbabwe to enable growth in the teams below.
Uganda won the tournament, beating Tanzania in the final in Benoni, South Africa, at the end of an eight-day competition which the ACA says reached a huge global audience.
Kenya, who have appeared at five 50-over World Cups and one T20 World Cup, and Botswana were losing semi-finalists in a tournament completed by Ghana, Malawi, Cameroon and Mozambique.
“It was the ideal venue. It had all the infrastructure, and it was great,” ACA chief executive Cassim Suliman told BBC Sport Africa.
“We beamed it into 168 countries. We’re just waiting for the final figures but it passed the 52 million viewers – it was very successful.
“Giving the smaller guys an opportunity to display the standards of cricket and help them at the same time with cricket development, that’s what we are here for.” Referring to the all-encompassing Asian Cup, Houghton says that even the teams that do not get to the finals improve because of the inherent challenge provided by qualifying.
“I’d like to see the same thing run through Africa. It’s the exposure,” said the former Zimbabwe batsman and captain. “Being at a World Cup is number one, but it’s also the series around the World Cup as well.
“It’s nice that there are so many African sides playing good cricket. Some of the ICC associate member sides like Uganda were also in the qualifiers (for the T20 World Cup) and they played one or two really good games.” — BBC Sport
Online Reporter