Namibia U-19 cricketers sail through to 2024 ICC U-19 Men’s Cricket

Namibia, nicknamed 'Walvis Bay Salt Eagles', became the third team to punch its ticket for the U-19 World Cup 2024 through the Qualifier route.

Last month, New Zealand went through from the East Asia-Pacific Qualifier while Nepal advanced from Asia in February 2023.

The Namibia U-19 cricketers sealed their qualification for the global showpiece after notching a comprehensive 53- run win over Nigeria U-19 in the final day's clash at Dar es Salaam Gymkhana Club.

Having won the toss, Namibia U-19 cricketers elected to bat, posting 148 runs for nine wickets in the allotted50 overs.

Chasing 149 runs to come out victorious was ultimately a tall order for Nigeria U-19 cricketers, given the youngsters were skittled for 95 runs in 37 overs.

Peter-Daniel Blignaut garnered the Player of the Match prize for his scintillating bowling, having ended with five wickets for 23 runs in 10 overs for the Namibia U-19 team.

Namibia U-19 cricketer ended at the top of the week-long qualifiers' table having registered a win in all five duels they took part in and ended with a 1.7490 net run rate- amassing 524 runs and giving away 279 runs.

Kenya U-19 (0.0191 net run rate), Uganda U-19 (0.3431 net run rate), and Sierra Leone U-19 (-0.6977 net run rate) teams ended in second, third, and fourth places respectively, followed by Tanzania U-19 squad (-0.4728 net run rate) which settled for the fifth place and bottom-placed Nigeria U-19 cricketers managing a -0.6069 net run rate.

Seascape Hotel, METL, CTV, Ashton Media, Pepsi, G1 Security, Red Dot Distribution, and Reliance Insurance are that supported the ICC U-19 Men’s Cricket World Cup Africa Qualifiers.

Six teams namely Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Uganda took part in the 2023 ICC U-19 Men's World Cup Africa Qualifiers which got underway on July 23.

Sixteen teams will be competing at the 2024 ICC U-19 Men’s Cricket World Cup Sri Lanka over 41 matches and 11 teams automatically qualified for the event as the best-placed Full Member nations from the previous event played in 2022.

The remaining five spots have been determined through regional qualification pathways, with one team from each region securing a place at the global event.

Americas and East Asia Pacific have hosted one qualifying event in 2023, with the winner of the showdowns sealing a spot at the 2024 U-19 Men’s Cricket World Cup.

The African, Asia, and Europe regions have each gone through a two-step qualification structure. These regions hosted Division 2 Qualifiers in 2022 to determine the teams that will compete in the second and final qualifying event, the Regional Qualifier, with events taking place in 2023.

The winner of the African event will join regional qualifiers from Asia (Nepal), East Asia Pacific (New Zealand), Europe, and America’s representatives, as well as the 11 Full Member cricket nations that automatically qualified for the 15th edition that will be played in Sri Lanka.

The Full Member competitors are Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Ireland, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, and Zimbabwe.

Sri Lanka will be hosting a third U-19 Men’s Cricket World Cup after riveting events in 2000 and 2006.

Tanzania's U-19 cricketers were on the verge of qualifying for the previous global showpiece which took place in the West Indies in 2022 after dictating the pace in the Africa Division One Qualifiers, which took place in October 2021 in Kigali, Rwanda.

Unfortunately, they were pipped to that lone berth by Uganda on net run rate (NRR) after the latter bundled the former out for 51 runs in 26.5 overs on the final day of the qualifier and proceeded to chase down the target within 11 overs to boost their NRR to 2.128.

The trio of Uganda, Namibia, and Tanzania finished with the same number of points as Uganda emerged victors with a superior NRR.

Amazingly Tanzania finished third as the Namibians beat Nigeria in a rain-curtailed match played at Gahanga Cricket Stadium.