There were wins for the hosts, Singapore, along with Norway and Bahrain on the opening day of the ICC World Cricket League Division 6. Click here for a full round-up, and be sure to read our exclusive player diaries from the leading figures in the tournament.

Six teams start their next step towards the 2015 World Cup on Saturday, as the ICC World Cricket League Division 6 gets underway in Singapore. The diverse nations of Bahrain, Botswana, Malaysia, Guernsey, Norway and Singapore will compete for the two places to gain promotion to Division 5, which is due to be held in Nepal in February 2010.

Click here for the full report

Full coverage, including scorecards, reports and photographs will be on Cricinfo throughout the tournament

Tony Munro

Botswana will complete their preparations for this month's ICC World Cricket League Division 6 tournament with a short camp in Sri Lanka.

The southern Africans will play three matches in Sri Lanka during a five-day training camp before leaving for Singapore.

These matches will be on top of games played in the Botswanan capital, Gaberones, against South African provincial team, North West Dragons and club team, Ladium Cavaliers. The matches this weekend against the Cavaliers will be the final games at home ahead of the team's departure for Sri Lanka on August 19.

Botswana last played in a tournament in its unbeaten run in the Africa Division 2 tournament in Benoni, South Africa in October. It was relegated to WCL Division Six after finishing fifth in Division Five in August, 2007.

WCL Division Six will also feature Bahrain, Guernsey, Malaysia, Norway and Singapore.

Botswana: Omar Ali (capt), Tshepo Mhozya, Karabo Modise, Mosa Gaolekwe, Gaolape Mokokwe, Denzil Sequeira, Karan Kapoor, Abdul Patel, James Moses, Shah Zaib Khan, Indika Perera, Faisal Rana Rasheed, Taroesh Trivedi, Noor Ahmad; Coach - Solly "Benn" Chothia.

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"

Sierra Leone continue to surprise opponents and followers of the Africa Under-19 Championship in topping the table. After the fifth day they are joint-first with Namibia on eight points, but with a superior net run-rate, thanks to another win over Zambia by 85 runs. Chasing 177 Zambia were skittled for 91 with Ibrahim Kabia picking up 3 for 8. Elsewhere, Namibia thrashed Nigeria by ten wickets while Kenya – who are in a disappointing fourth position – beat Tanzania by 19 runs. Uganda pulled off a thrilling one-wicket win over Botswana when they rather underestimated their target of 114, losing nine wickets – three of them to Waseem Tajbhai. Their last pair saw them across the line, however, with overs (if not nerves) to spare.

---- Points table ----
1. Sierra Leone (8 points, NRR: 1.03)
2. Namibia (8, 0.87)
3. Uganda (6, -0.56)
4. Kenya (6, 0.10)
5. Zambia (4, -0.12)
6. Botswana (4, -0.44)
7. Tanzania (2, -0.39)
8. Nigeria (0, -2.02)

Girish Ramakrishna

"We had an 11-over carnival sponsored by the World Group in which 12 teams participated this weekend. The tournament began on Friday and ended on Sunday and was won by Gujarat XI who beat a Moghul XI in the finals.

As a curtain-raiser to the finals, we organised a game between the development side comprising kids from the government schools and the kids from the private schools. The government schools won the toss and scored 99 for 1 in 15 overs, with Obakeng Amen top-scoring on 44 from 42 balls. In reply the private school were all out for 55 in 14 overs.

This morning, December 1, we had nearly 75 kids from government primary schools to attend an Aids awareness programme run by Kings Foundation in Gaborone. They played mini cricket from 9am to midday. There were 18 government primary teachers along with some volunteers.

Girish Ramakrishna is head of Botswana's development

Cricket in Botswana continues to grow at an impressive rate, and the sport will be introduced to the people of Maun - the country's fifth largest town, with 30,000 people - next week.

The drastic improvement and progression of the Botswana Cricket Association (BCA)’s developmental programme has now captured the interest of important sports and societal figures, such as the vice chairperson of the Botswana National Sports Council (BNSC), Dr Nomsa Mbere, who braced the event to support the BCA’s efforts and award the winners their prizes.

“I am quite impressed by the efforts of these personnel from the BCA, for its evident that they are determined to bring Botswana together through cricket. I am sure they have even used their personal finances for the teams to have gotten this far. The teachers should also be up for mention because of their spirit of volunteerism,” said Mbere.

Girish Ramakrishna, treasure for the BCA told the Sunday Standard that they will be introducing cricket to Maun residents as of next week.

“Interest level in cricket in Botswana has grown tremendously and so has the performance of the young cricketers as we have witnessed today,” said Ramakrishna.

Next week's ICC annual get-together promises to have more than its fair share of politicking, posturing and controversy. But, unless there is a major about-turn, it should also be a watershed for the Associates and Affiliates.

In 2009, income from the ICC's six-year media deal with ESPN-Star, worth over US$1 billion, kicks in, and while the game's big boys will still keep the lion's share, the rest will see substantial increases in their incomes.

Continue reading "Future bright beyond the Test world"

After holding development programmes for primary schools in and around Gaborone for about a year, Botswana have now selected a development squad.

The team is seen as a future strong national team for the country. According to the Botswana Cricket Association's development officer, Girish Ramakrishna, the squad is made up of 30 promising players that would eventually be trimmed to the normal number of 12.

“Imagine, from all the schools we had more than 800 kids who were provided with cricket skills almost every Saturday,” he told the Sunday Standard. “Now we selected thirty kids that are seen to be having a lot of potential for the sport. The kids will be equipped with the necessary specialized skills every week to prepare them for tough international competitions. We are optimistic that these kids will make a strong team.”

Ramakrishna also noted that those who don’t make it to the final 12 will be monitored regularly so that the talent does not go to waste.

The development programme started by Ramakrishna for public primary schools was the first of its kind in Botswana but managed to attract many schoolchildren. Most kids will soon be heading to junior secondary schools that do not have cricket. It is something of concern to Ramakrishna but he said they will always try something just like they did with the primary schools.

“It is a challenge but we will make efforts for the sport to reach junior secondary schools,” he said. “We are planning to offer many coaching courses for teachers and, in that way, things can be better. If all the support and aspirations we got from primary school teachers can be the case with junior secondary ones, I am optimistic this country can achieve something.”

It may be three long years years away, but the road to the 2011 World Cup begins this week in the unlikely setting of Jersey. More famed for its cattle and potatoes than a venue for cricket tournaments, Jersey plays host to 12 of the world's lesser-known teams in Division 5 of the World Cricket League (WCL), as they battle to climb the ladder to the fourth division and dream of a World Cup place in Asia.

Will Luke previews Division 5 of the World Cricket League which gets underway this week.

The cricket development programme in Botswana continues to grow in leaps and bounds. The first phase of the programme for this year kicked Off in February which saw at least 524 students from seven government primary schools registered for the programme this year. The Botswana Cricket Association (BCA) Development Officer, Girish Ramakrishna, told the Sunday Standard that since the inception of the programme last year, the number of schools in and around Gaborone, including those in the Kgatleng District have expressed interest to join the programme.

This year the interest shown of schools joining the programme has been much higher in comparison to the total number of registrations they had last year. The cricket grassroots development programme is aimed at promoting cricket and to spot talent at grassroots level. According to Ramakrishna, the programme involves, among other things, administration courses and basic teachers training courses. He added that “The best way to nature talent is targeting students at the grassroots level because these are formative years for a child. The child is energetic and there is lot of enthusiasm,” he revealed. Ramakrishna further revealed that they have teamed up with the Kings Foundation, which imparts valuable life skills to children after the cricket development programme sessions. He said given his experience, he wants to take cricket in the country to greater heights. “I have been working with children for 25 years. Our aim this year is to have more government schools participating in the league.”

This first appeared in an ICC Development Programme newsletter

The Botswana Cricket Association has embarked on the first leg of the development programme for government school kids in 2008. In February the board added seven new schools and 500 children, boosting the numbers to 27 schools and 1800 kids.

"Our Saturday clinic is progressing well too," Girish Ramakrishna, a spokesman for the BCA, told Cricinfo. "The number of kids participating is around 75 at the Gaborone Cricket Club and we have commenced the Saturday clinic at the Gaborone Youth Centre. Kings Foundation and NGO is assisting us with basic life skills and values to be imparted to the kids at the end of the training session."

The number of people actively participating in cricket outside the Test-playing countries increased 17% in 2007, according to the ICC.

The research, carried out by the ICC's development program, was collated from 33 Associate and 58 Affiliate members. It showed that there were 338,051 male and female players in those countries in 2007, an increase of 49,158 on the previous year. Since 2002, when there were 144,047 participants, there has been a 135% rise.

Click here for the full story.

The number of participants in Botswana's youth development programme has swelled dramatically from 300 children to almost 1300 in under six months, and shows no signs of abating.

Seven more schools have joined the initiative which has been sponsored by the ICC and the African Cricket Council (ACC) to promote the game to a wider, younger audience. Such is the enthusiasm that a league has been set-up for government primary schools.

Click here to read the full story.

Cricket continues to develop in Botswana, particularly among students, according to the Republic's government website.

The third phase of cricket development kicked off this week with 500 students from seven government primary schools joining the programme. Botswana Cricket Association (BCA) Development Officer Girish Ramakrishna said the total number of students now stands at 1300, with more bound to join as the programme expands. The first and second phase of development covered nine (9) schools with over 800 students.

The cricket grassroots development programme, almost similar to the Botswana Football Associations Re Ba Bona Ha programme, has been able to spread to more schools. The seven primary schools that have just joined the initiative are the Batlokwa, Mophane, Lesedi, Botsalano, and Ben Thema, Galaletsang, and Ramogotsi. International Cricket Council (ICC) in collaboration with the African Cricket Council has sponsored the programme, with equipment donated to various primary schools.

Ramakrishna said they would launch the cricket league for government primary schools this year in October, to take the cricket game forward. The young cricketers gather at the BCA cricket oval every Saturday morning where they are drilled. The programme also runs during school holidays. Ramakrishna said BCA is happy about the enthusiastic response and they are happy to see that more schools are coming under the programme.

He said there are 729 government primary schools around the country and BCAs main objective is to introduce this development to all schools all of them.

Botswana produced the shock of the Africa Under-19 World Cup Qualifiers when they Uganda by 27 runs to reach the semi-finals in Benoni on Monday.

Botswana's unexpected victory eliminated Tanzania from the semi-final on net run-rate after the duo along with Uganda ended up at four points each from three matches. In Wednesday's semi-finals, Uganda meets Namibia while Kenya faces Botswana. Kenya topped Pool One after conjuring up a four-wicket victory over Zambia while Namibia finished second after defeating Ghana by 172 runs, courtesy of an unbeaten century by Sean Silver.

In the Botswana-Uganda match, Botswana scored 192 for 8 after being put into bat with contributions from Karan Kapoor (54) and Nadeem Tajbhay (36) while Emmanuel Nakaana bagged 3 for 45. In turn, Uganda was dismissed for 165 in 44 overs after losing their last seven wickets for 54.

Tanzania, in their last match, carved out a 153-run victory over Nigeria. Athumani Kakonzi (70) and Seif Abdul (68) put on 123 for the second wicket to set the platform for Tanzania's 296 in 49.5 overs. Nigeria, in its target chase, were bowled out for 143.

Silver scored 101 to inspire Namibia to a 172-run victory over Ghana and featured in a 117-run second wicket partnership with Tiaan Louw (62) as Namibia scored 287 for 6. Ghana were dismissed for 115 with Elandre Oosthuizen taking 4 for 39 and Louis Petrus van der Westhuizen claiming 3 for 13.

Spinners Rakep Patel and Rohit Vekaria shared six wickets to help Kenya beat Zamibia by four wickets. Patel took 3 for 16 and Vekaria bagged 3 for 17 as Zambia were spun out for 152. Kenya achieved victory in 34.1 overs for the loss of six wickets.

The winner of the Africa Under-19 Qualifiers join Papua New Guinea (from the East Asia-Pacific Region), Ireland (from the Europe Region) and Bermuda (from the Americas Region), the ICC's 10 Full Members and hosts Malaysia at the 16-team U-19 World Cup from February 17 to March 2 2008 in Malaysia.

Jersey will host the ICC World Cricket League Division 5 (WCL Div. 5) tournament in 2008.

The ICC’s decision follows a recent visit to the island by a development team to inspect the country’s suitability for promotion to Associate membership, which will be voted on at the ICC Annual Conference at Lord's in June.

Continue reading "Jersey to host WCL Division Five tournament"

Jersey will host the ICC World Cricket League Division 5 (WCL Div. 5) tournament in 2008, the ICC confirmed on Tuesday.

The decision follows a recent visit to the island by an ICC Development team to inspect the country's suitability for promotion to Associate membership, which will be voted on at the ICC Annual Conference at Lord's in June.

Good news from Africa where it is reported that the Botswana Cricket Association is intending to introduce the sport to government primary schools countrywide.

The problems facing the Association were highlighted in the local newspaper.

“Students attending English Medium Schools have played cricket for a long time, and it was only last year when the sport was introduced in public schools. However, the programme then never kicked off as the development coach disappeared, and further, there was lack of commitment from teachers and students in selected teams.”