Tony Munro

The next North West African Championships have been delayed to April 2010 due to the global financial crisis.

The economic downturn may also see the tournament restricted to its traditional participants, Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, said the president of the Nigeria Cricket Federation, Kwesi Sagoe.

"It is likely that a review of participants would be undertaken given the cost of the event and the relative development standard of each of the North-West African countries. No decision has however been made on this yet," Sagoe told Cricinfo.

In recent years, Morocco and Mali have taken part with Mali experiencing some heavy defeats. At one stage, following the change of the tournament's name to the "North West African Championships", Egypt and Libya had been mentioned as possible future participants.

Sierra Leone earned promotion to World Cricket League (WCL) Africa Division 2 following their narrow two-wicket win over Rwanda on Wednesday.

It will be a case of the new and the old as the young Sierra Leoneans join the mature and primarily expatriate Malawians for the tournament to be held in Benoni in April.

Sierra Leone won promotion as runners-up in the WCL Division 3 tournament, following their victory over Rwanda. Gambia won the battle to avoid the wooden spoon, beating a young Lesotho team by two wickets.

An unbeaten 153 off just 116 balls from Malawian batsman Sheilendra Jeena was the highlight on day three of the World Cricket League Division 3 tournament. Jeena hit 19 fours and two sixes and propelled Malawi to 237 for 9 from 50 overs, before they bowled out Gambia for 121. Prince Johnson was Gambia's best bowler, taking 5 for 43 from his 10 overs, while Moses Bahoum (57) top-scored for Gambia. Zaffar Sukhera led the attack for the hosts, taking 3 for 19.

Sierra Leone had an easy day in their match against a youthful Lesotho, winning by six wickets with 35.3 overs to spare. Having been put in, Lesotho slipped from 21 for 1 to 51 for 6, and were eventually shot out for 82 in 32.2 overs. The main resistance came from Masui Tolofi (19). Allrounder Lansana Lamin ensured the Lesotho innings never got going with 3 for 12 from 9.2 overs. Sierra Leone finished the game in a hurry, ending on 85 for 4 from 14.4 overs. Lamin was named the Man of the Match, after hitting two sixes and a four in his brief unbeaten cameo of 19.

Scores:
Malawi 237 for 9 (Jeena 153*, Ishtiyak Khan 27, Johnson 5-43) beat Gambia 121 (Bahoum 57, Sukhera 3-19)

Sierra Leone 85 for 4 (Lamin 19*, Coker 16*, Khubetsoana 2-20) beat Lesotho 82 (Tolofi 19, Lamin 3-12, Kabia 2-26, Marah 2-32)

Sierra Leone sent a warning to the other teams with an impressive first-up performance, while hosts, Malawi, scored their second successive win on day two of the World Cricket League Africa Division 3 tournament in Blantyre.

The home-grown Sierra Leone vindicated their decision to bat first by scoring 255 for 7 in its 50 overs. It then bowled out Gambia for 74 from 27.2 overs to win by 181 runs. Meanwhile the young Rwandan team bowled out the experienced Malawians for 172 in 44.2 overs, but could not recover from a slow early start to reach just 126 in 42.1 overs. Malawi won by 46 runs.