Chapter 6: Africa Div 2 (T20) Championship, World Twenty20 Qualifier

The decision by ICC to revert back the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 from 16 nation to a 12 nation tournament in lieu of making 2015 WC a 14 nation affair came as a shock. On one side they talk to using T20 a driver to expand cricket and then suddenly mid way they decided to go back on their words just because many corrupt Test cricket board that depend on handout from ICC like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe or West Indies could have the money. This decision really made me think so stop writing on World Twenty20. But then over time I write for the Associate and would do my bit to get some coverage for them. Though now just 2 chapters are left, I would finish all chapters as fast and catch up with the present.

The African Div 2 was supposed to be a 10 nation tournament with teams divided into 2 pools of 5 and each team playing all the opposite pool teams. Hence each team was supposed to play 5 matches and 25 matches in Total and all 10 teams in 1 pool. It was a complicated system. Then Zambia bound by corruption scandal of money embezzlement was suspended by ICC. This reduced the tournament to 9 nation and above complicated system could not be applicable. A simple system of 9 teams one pool came into effect.

The 9 teams in the tournament were Botswana, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Swaziland & Tanzania. There were 2 slots with Nigeria, Tanzania and Botswana as the favorite team. The tournament were one of the most interesting one with many upsets happening. The greatest dark horses of the tournament were Ghana who not only came second and qualified with 6 victories out of 8 but on course defeated the 2 tournament favorites Tanzania and Botswana. They were defeated by tournament winners and another dark horses of tournament Sierra Leone. Peter Kirtsen showed why he is one of the best coaches who led the war ravaged country on a brilliant performance with 5 wins out of 8. They on course defeated the qualifiers Ghana along with tournament favorites Tanzania. They had a performance and the potential showed they have the potential to go ahead. Tanzania and Botswana did not live up to expectations with losses to Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone.

The tournament showed that if these teams are given more matches then we have an improved performances. In the end Nigeria with just 1 loss to Botswana along with Ghana qualified for Division 1. This tournament was the most interesting one

Team	Played	Points
Nigeria	8	14
Ghana	8	12
Botswana	8	12
Tanzania	8	10
Sierra Leone	8	10
Swaziland	8	6
Mozambique	8	4
Malawi	8	2
Rwanda	8	2

Nigeria and Ghana qualify for Africa FDiv 1 and Rwanda goes back to Div 3.

Chapter 1:- Africa Div 3 (T20) Chanpionship, 2011, World Twenty20 Qualifier

The path to 2012 World Twenty20 started its first leg with 7 nations of Africa fighting it out in hope of reach the ultimate pinnacle. The 7 Nations played in WCL Africa Div 3. These nations were:- Mali, Gambia, Cameroon, Lesotho, Morocco, Seychelles & Rwanda. The winner of this tournament would qualify for Africa Div 2

Gambia have a cricketing culture with they being former member of the West African team and a former British colony.
Rwanda has been going really strong on cricket development with their schools regularly taking part in Uganda. This has lead to decent levels of development
Seychelles is a former British Colony with a cricket legacy. They regularly played a triangular tournament with Maldives & Mauritius until the 1990's. They were the 105th member(Latest) member of ICC and this was their first tournament
Morocco:- They are also new to the cricketing spectrum. They however had the credit of hosting ODI at the stadium between South Africa, Pakistan & Sri Lanka
Lesotho are completely surrounded by South Africa and hence does not leave any doubt where cricket comes from
Mali and Cameroon are teams on which I don't have much information

The teams were divided into 2 groups
GROUP A:- Rwanda, Lesotho & Cameroon
GROUP B:- Seychelles, Morocco, Gambia & Mali

The tournament favorites Rwanda virtually had no competition in their group. They simply thrashed both the teams and qualified for finals. Cricket influence of South Africa helped them defeat Cameroon and come second

Group A
Team P W L T/NR Pts
Rwanda 2 2 0 0 4
Lesotho 2 1 1 0 2
Cameroon 2 0 2 0 0

In other group the teams were new to each other but West African experience had made them the favorites. However it was the newcomer Seychelles that rocked the world and won all their matches. Morocco with good infrastructure managed to come second while Gambia third, not making much use of their past experiences. Mali came 4th in group and hence last overall in tournament as they would not play any playoff.

Group B
Team P W L T/NR Pts
Seychelles 3 3 0 0 6
Morocco 3 2 1 0 4
Gambia 3 1 2 0 2
Mali 3 0 3 0 0


The final match was between Seychelles and Rwanda. The winner would go into the Div 2 and rest would have to play it out next time after 2 years. However Rwanda kept to their tag and won the tournament qualifying for Africa Div 2.

FINAL STANDING
1. Rwanda (Qualify for Africa Div 2)
2. Seychelles
3. Lesotho
4. Morocco
5. Gambia
6. Cameroon
7. Mali