Chronicle Editor
CRICKET South Africa chief executive Pholetsi Moseki believes South Africa, along with Zimbabwe and Namibia, will deliver a “beautiful African World Cup” after the International Cricket Council announced the hosts for the 2027 Men’s Cricket World Cup yesterday.
It will be the first time the Men’s World Cup will be returning to the African continent in 18 years after South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya jointly hosted the 2003 event.
Kenya has now been replaced with Namibia, who have just returned from a stellar maiden performance at the Men’s T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.
The hosts were selected via a competitive bidding process overseen by a board sub-committee chaired by Martin Snedden along with Sourav Ganguly and Ricky Skerritt.
The ICC board accepted the recommendations of the committee, which conducted a thorough review of each bid along with ICC management.
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“We are very excited. It has been a lot of sleepless nights over the last few weeks. A lot of us were nervous because we didn’t know how long the process would take, but it’s terrific,” Moseki said.
“We have this goal of growing cricket in Africa and we see ourselves as a big brother to both Namibia and Zimbabwe.
It was quite key that we pulled them along and basically turn into an African tournament and share the occasion with them. It is extremely important for the continent and it is possibly one of the fastest growing games on the continent and this will be presented as an African World Cup. We haven’t had it in a very long time and its really exciting,”
Moseki believes South Africa’s successful staging of major events such as the Fifa World Cup in 2010 stands them in good stead to deliver a truly African World Cup.
“We are a sports mad nation and every time we host an event, we want to put our best foot forward. We will deliver a truly African World Cup and we will host a multitude of people from around the world and they will be excited and leave inspired. We want to deliver a beautiful African World Cup,” Moseki said.
Zimbabwe Cricket chairman Tavengwa Mukuhlani was delighted with the news.
“This is fantastic news coming after we worked hard and with determination as a group to get the World Cup back on our soil,” he said.
“And this is clearly a vote of confidence in what we as Zimbabwe Cricket are doing and in what we as Africa can do.
We are humbled by the trust the ICC has placed in our bid and thrilled by the opportunity we have been given to put cricket on a new and sustainable path for generations to come.
“On our part, we are ready to ensure the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2027 stands out as a unique event that celebrates Africa in all its magnificent splendour, richness, vibrancy, diversity and glory,” Mukuhlani said.
Martin Snedden, chair of the ICC hosting sub-committee was comfortable the African continent could deliver a World Cup of the highest standard.
“We received a range of excellent bids to host the ICC Men’s events in the next cycle. We were committed to ensuring a broad spread of hosts to align with the ICC strategic objective of global growth and have ended up with 14 countries who will support that long term aim,” he said. – Online Reporter/IOL Sport
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