Wednesday fixtures
Match Day One
Nigeria v Tanzania 9.15 am: Gahanga Cricket Stadium
Kenya v Uganda 9.15 am: IPRC Kigali Oval
Nigeria v Uganda 1.45 pm: Gahanga Cricket Stadium
Kenya v Tanzania 1.45pm: IPRC Kigali Oval
Only one spot for the ICC T20 World Cup is up for grabs as four African countries go head to head in Kigali as the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier enters a crucial stage ahead of Wednesday's kick off at Gahanga Cricket Stadium.
The four-day tournament, which runs until November 20, has attracted four countries namely Uganda and Tanzania which reached the final stages of the World Cup Africa qualifiers through sub-regional tournaments recently held in Rwanda while Nigeria and Kenya had automatic tickets to the final stages without passing through sub-regional qualifiers.
Justine Ligyalingi, the ICC Development Officer in Africa told the press that Rwanda has so far been impressive in hosting the ICC Men’s World Cup Qualifiers.
"We, as ICC, would like to thank Rwanda Cricket Association and the government of Rwanda, for successfully hosting the qualifiers well despite the challenges posed by the pandemic. Our expectations now are that we are going to have a beautiful week of tough but beautiful fixtures,” Ligyalingi said.
Each of the four teams will play three qualifying matches and the side that will come out on the top of the table will book a ticket to the 2022 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup slated in October next year in Australia.
On the opening day, Nigeria go up against Tanzania at Gahanga Cricket while Kenya will be taking on Uganda at IPRC Kigali Oval in the morning.
In the afternoon, Nigeria will go head to head with Uganda at Gahanga Cricket Stadium as Kenya and Tanzania face off in a clash of East African rivals.
Tanzania was the last team to go through to the final round of the ICC Men’s World Cup Qualifier after leading the table at the World Cup Group B sub regional qualifier held in Kigali from November 2-7 at Gahanga Cricket Stadium.
The Tanzanians stayed in Kigali to prepare for the final round of the World Cup qualifier, where they played a warm up game against Rwanda, as they set their eyes on securing their dream ticket to the World Cup for the first time in the country’s Cricket history.
As they get set to face Nigeria in their opening game of the tournament on Wednesday November 17, head coach Steve Tikolo said that they won’t take any team lightly if they are to win the ticket.
"We will play each of the teams in this tournament as we did against Sierra Leone and other teams that we faced during the past Group B qualifier. We want to play the World Cup and this is why we are here. There won’t be any excuse because the boys are ready for the tournament,” said the tactician.