Following the suspension of Zimbabwe Cricket, Namibia will compete from the vacant place in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier 2019. The event which gets underway in Scotland later this month will see Namibia join hosts Scotland, Bangladesh, Ireland, Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Thailand and USA to compete for the two remaining spots at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020.
Namibia step into the frame by virtue of their finishing spot in the Africa regional pathway having lost the final of the women’s African Qualifier to Zimbabwe. This maintains the balance of regional representation in the global qualifying events.
In the men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier, Nigeria will take the 14th and final spot in place of suspended Zimbabwe when the event gets underway in the UAE in October. Nigeria will join hosts UAE, Hong Kong, Ireland, Jersey, Kenya, Namibia, Netherlands, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, Singapore and two teams from the Americas Final due to be held later this month.
Nigeria came third in the Africa Men’s Final and as such become the third African team in the global qualifier along with Kenya and Namibia, again retaining the regional representation for the event.
Talking about Zimbabwe, in the last month, the ICC at its annual conference in London said that Zimbabwe Cricket had not been able to provide a process for conducting free and democratic elections and suspended it in a unanimous decision.