Zimbabwe to host cricket tourney

Chipo Sabeta
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has confirmed that Zimbabwe will host the ICC Women’s Cricket Twenty-20 World Cup Qualifiers for the Africa region from May 5 to 13 this year.

Eight nations, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Namibia and Tanzania will join the hosts in a fight for the two slots to progress to the next stage of the qualifiers.

Matches will be played at three venues — Harare Sports Club, Takashinga Cricket Ground and Old Hararians.

Zimbabwe will be looking forward to earning a ticket to the final stage of the qualifiers after failing last year.

Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) acting managing director, Givemore Makoni, says Zimbabwe is ready to host the qualifiers for next year’s ICC Women’s T-20 World Cup.

“We are tremendously excited to be hosting the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2019 event, which will bring some of the world’s most talented and gifted cricketers to our beautiful country. We are privileged to have been given the right to host the Women’s T-20 Africa Region World Cup qualifiers,” he said.

“As the proud hosts, we are very passionate about what we do on and off the field and we are leaving no stone unturned to ensure we deliver an extraordinarily memorable tournament,” added Makoni.

While the ultimate goal for the teams involved will be to secure one of the two remaining berths at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2020, Makoni believes such qualifier events always provide the platform for raw talent and unheralded players.

The ICC Women’s T-20 World Cup Qualifier is a Twenty-20 International tournament run under the auspices of the International Cricket Council.

The tournament serves as the final qualifying event for the ICC T-20 World Cup for Associate Members. The first edition was held in 2008, with only six teams. This was increased to eight teams for the 2010 tournament and to 16 teams for the 2012 and 2013 editions, but reduced to 14 for the 2015 edition.

Currently, the top six finishers in the qualifier move on to the ICC World Twenty-20 tournament.

Ireland are the most successful team, having won three tournaments (including one shared with the Netherlands) and qualified for the World Twenty-20 on every occasion the tournament has been played.