2022–23 ICC Men's T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier
Cricket tournament / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2022–23 ICC Men's T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier was a Twenty20 International (T20I) cricket tournament, which was played as part of qualification process for the 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup.[1]
The first stage of the qualification pathway in the Africa region consisted of two sub-regional qualifiers,[2] with the top two teams from each event progressing to the regional final.[3] The sub-regional tournaments were played from 17 November to 9 December 2022, hosted by the Rwanda Cricket Association.[4]
Kenya were the clear favourites going into Qualifier A, while Mali and Saint Helena played their first men's T20I matches at the event.[5] Kenya and Rwanda progressed from Qualifier A after finishing top of the round-robin tournament.[6] Rwanda's win over Malawi proved to be decisive, in what was one of the several matches affected by rain.[7] Malawi's Sami Sohail was named player of the series, Rwanda's Eric Dusingizimana and Kenya's Collins Obuya shared the best batsman award, Botswana's Dhruv Maisuria and Rwanda's Emmanuel Sebareme shared the bowling award and Orchide Tuyisenge was named as best fielder.[8]
Gambia played their first matches with T20I status during Qualifier B.[9] Tanzania won Qualifier B and runners-up Nigeria claimed the remaining place at the regional final.[10][11] Mozambique's Jose Bulele was named player of the series, Ghana's Samson Awiah was named best batsman, Tanzania's Yalinde Nkanya was named best bowler, and the best fielder award went to Tanzania's Kassim Nassoro.[12]
In the Regional Final, Zimbabwe's chances of qualification were harmed early in the tournament after losing in an upset to Uganda, who were playing in their first T20I against a full member nation.[13] Namibia were the first team to qualify for the World Cup after winning their first five games in the regional final to ensure a top-two position.[14][15] On the final day, Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe were all in contention to qualify,[16] and it was Uganda who sealed the final place in the World Cup.[17][18] This was the first time that Uganda had qualified for a senior World Cup.[19][20]