In an unanimous decision taken last month, the ICC said at its annual meeting in London that Zimbabwe Cricket was not able to provide a procedure for conducting free and democratic elections and was therefore suspended. As a result, Nigeria will take the 14th and final place in place of Zimbabwe for the Men’s T20 World Cup qualifier to be played in the UAE in October. Nigeria had finished third in the Africa T20 qualifier final and will be the third African team in the qualifier along with Kenya and Namibia. The qualifiers include Nigeria, UAE, Hong Kong, Ireland, Jersey, Kenya, Namibia, Netherlands, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, Singapore and two America finalists will also join. The top six teams will qualify to participate in the 2020 Men’s T20 World Cup to be held in Australia in October-November next year.
The exit of Zimbabwe from the qualifying process for the T20 World Cup means that at least one associate nation’s team is scheduled to participate in the tournament’s 12-team main draw. At the end of 2018, the top eight teams in the ICC T20 rankings qualified for the Super 12, including host Australia.
In March, Nigeria made history by entering its first global competition Under-19 World Cup 2020. When they defeated Sierra Leone in a tight final. The Nigerian team began to undergo a revamp in 2016 after a poor performance in the 2016 World Cricket League Division Five in Jersey when they were eliminated from the 50-over associate competition as a result of finishing last. It was only after this that the entire team, including the coach, was dismissed by the board. Since then, the team won the matches constantly improving performance.