Junior Female Yellow Greens arrive Tanzania for W'Cup qualif

Nigeria’s U-19 women’s cricket team, the Junior Female Yellow Greens, have arrived in Tanzania as they bid to return to the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, which will be held in Bangladesh and Nepal next year, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

The ICC U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier will take place in Dar es Salaam from August 30 to September 5.

Led by coach Sarah Bakhita and Theophilus Ibodeme, and supported by the high-performance manager of the Nigeria Cricket Federation, the team rounded off their training at the UNILAG Cricket Oval on Wednesday before departing on Thursday.

A 14-player squad was named by the NCF last week, consisting of a blend of players from the team that made history at the 2025 U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup in Malaysia, where Nigeria finished sixth, and emerging players who have progressed through the national U-17 championships.

Christabel Chukwuonye will captain the team and will be joined by regulars including Shola Adekunle, Anointed Akhigbe, Omosigho Eguakun, wicketkeeper Deborah Bassey, Jessica Bieni, Beauty Oguai and pacer Peace Usen.

Other players in the squad are Favour Effiong, Jennifer Godwin, Glory Idiahi, Chisom Okpe, Praise Onaghise and Inyene Ubong.

The Junior Female Yellow Greens will begin their quest against Uganda on Sunday before facing Malawi on Monday.

Their final group game will be against hosts Tanzania on Wednesday, September 2.

A top-two finish will see them through to the semi-finals, where they will face one of the teams from Group B, comprising Kenya, Namibia, Rwanda and Zimbabwe.

The winner of the tournament will join South Africa in representing Africa at the main event in 2027.

South Africa have already secured one of Africa’s qualification spots after finishing among the top four teams at the previous edition of the World Cup, which India won.

The TCA Cricket Arena at the University of Dar es Salaam will host the matches, with the eight participating teams competing for the lone qualification spot available from the tournament.

Nigeria are the defending champions of the Africa Division 1 Qualifier after securing qualification for the previous World Cup by finishing above Zimbabwe in the group stage. The final between Nigeria and Zimbabwe was abandoned due to rain.

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