Tony Munro

Malawi remained unbeaten to ensure their promotion to Africa Division Two following their four-wicket win against Sierra Leone in Blantyre, Malawi on Tuesday. Sierra Leone must beat Rwanda on Wednesday to ensure they join Malawi in Benoni next March.

Sierra Leone won the toss and batted. However, the top order failed to fire and the innings was precariously poised at 142 for 5 in the 29th over. Allrounder Lasana Lamin smashed 78 off 86 balls, helping his side set a target of 176 for victory.

In response, the Malawi top-order managed meaningful partnerships in the run chase and reached 79-3 after 24 overs at one stage. Shailandra Jeena smashed an unbeaten 35 to help his team to achieve the target in 42 overs with four wickets to spare

Rwanda beat Lesotho in the second match by 218 runs.


Scores:

Sierra Leone 176 (41.4 overs) (Lansana Lamin 78, Ibrahim Kamara 45; Zaffar Sukhera 3-28, Arjun Kalaria 3-46, Shailendra Jeena 2-22) Malawi 177 for 6 (41.4 overs) (Shailendra Jeena 35 not out, Danish Jakhura 31, Mushahid Quraishy 22, Naeem Chaudry 21, Ishtiyaz Khan 20; Ibrahim Kabia 2-23, Lamin 2-39)

Rwanda def. Lesotho No scorecard available at this stage

Things go from bad to worse for Ugandan cricket and, by association, for the dreams of many young cricketers across Africa, with an admission that seven players, and not six as first reported, went missing at the end of the ICC Under-19 World Cup Qualifier in Toronto.

Reaction back at home has not been good. Former Uganda board chairman Abbey Lutaya said it was “a great setback for Ugandan sport”. He continued: “It is indeed a big step backwards to the many achievements cricket had attained. Uganda have worked hard on the cricket front and with the hard work almost bearing fruit, these little boys decide to spoil everything now,”

Continue reading "Missing cricketers leave authorities fuming"

Africa needs to look hard at itself and ask this question: why are there only two teams from the continent going to New Zealand for the Under-19s World Cup in January? And of the two, no-one can ever be too sure about Zimbabwe.

No non-Test nation (apart, now, from Zimbabwe) has made it through from Africa; whereas Asia will have six representatives (two non-Test sides), the Americas and Caribbean three (two non-Test nations), the Antipodes three (Australia, New Zealand and non-Test Papua New Guinea), and Europe two (one non-Test).

Continue reading "Africa at the crossroads"

Uganda and Sierra Leone booked their places in the Under-19 World Cup qualifying tournament later this year after finishing first and second in the Africa Under-19 Championship in Zambia. They will join Afghanistan, Hong Kong and the top two teams from the Americas, East Asia-Pacific and Europe regions in a play-off, from which the top five teams from that tournament will join the ten ICC Full Members and hosts Kenya in the 2010 Under-19 World Cup.

Continue reading "Uganda and Sierra Leone win through"

Rwanda’s Under-17 manager Emma Byiringiro has expressed frustration about the team’s preparations ahead of next month’s ICC/ACA U-17 tournament. The New Times quoted Byiringiro as saying: “It’s very difficult to have the boys during the course of the week because they are busy doing their exams. So this has limited us to weekends, which is not enough time for them to perfect their game.”

Despite facing Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, Byiringiro was upbeat. “Kenya and Uganda are favorites but we shall give them a good run for their money. But more certainly, we shall target to beat Tanzania. They are ICC Associate members but we humiliated them during last year’s ICC U-15 regional tournament and we are looking to do it again with the U-17s this year,”

The tournament is being held from July 1 to 5 in Kampala.

Nigeria opened the North West African Championships with a crushing win against Gambia and Sierra Leone beat Ghana on the second day.

Results

Nigeria 365 for 7 (Ofem 111, Onikoyi 46, Adegbola 36) beat Gambia 87 all out by 278 runs

Sierra Leone 195 for 7 beat Ghana 147 all out by 48 runs

Tony Munro

One of the oldest running (give or take the odd year) tournament in international cricket starts this weekend when five countries contest the North West African Championships in Lagos, Nigeria.

The traditional entrants, Gambia, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, all members of the British Commonwealth, have taken part in the old West African Championships since the 1960s.
Last year Mali and Morocco became the first former French territories to compete, (in Banjul, Gambia), and the tournament became the North West African Championships.

Mali is back, Morocco is not, and plans for Cameroon to debut this year have been scuppered.

Also returning this year are 12 of the 14 members of the successful Nigerian team, the only changes forced by work commitments. The five teams will contest a round-robin, with the winner decided on win-loss record.

Ghana and Sierra Leone are regarded as Nigeria's main threats.