Botswana national cricket team

Botswana
ICC status Associate Member (2001)
ICC region ICC Africa
WCL Seven
Coach Kenya Joseph Angara
First international
2 September 2002 v Zambia at Lusaka, Zambia
As of 8 August

The Botswana national cricket team is the team that represents the country of Botswana in international cricket matches. They have been an associate member of the International Cricket Council since 2005, after previously being an affiliate member since 2001.[1] They are in Division Five of the World Cricket League[2] and are ranked at joint 29th in the world by the ICC, the 5th highest ranked non-test team in the African region.[3] The team's coach is former Kenyan ODI player Joseph Angara, who was appointed in July 2015.[4]

History

Cricket was started in the country by expatriates from South Africa and the Indian subcontinent.[5] Botswana was elected to the ICC as an affiliate member in 2001,[1] and played in the Africa Cup in Zambia the following year. After winning all their first round matches against Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, they beat Kenya in the semi-final before losing by 270 runs to South Africa in the final.[6]

In March 2004, they won the African affiliates qualifying tournament for the 2005 ICC Trophy, qualifying them for the next stage of qualification, the Africa Cricket Association Championships. They beat Nigeria and Tanzania in that tournament in Zambia in August, finishing fourth, thus missing out on qualification for their first ICC Trophy.[7] They were rewarded for their performance in this tournament by being promoted to associate membership of the ICC in 2005.[1]

In 2006, they took part in Division Two of the African region of the World Cricket League, finishing second behind Tanzania.[8] This qualified them for Division Five of the World Cricket League.[2]

In May 2008, Botswana travelled to Jersey to take part in the Division Five tournament. Although Botswana beat the Bahamas in Group B, it was their only group stage win and with three loses and one match abandoned due to rain they failed to make the semi-finals. Botswana finished sixth overall after defeating Germany but losing to Singapore in positional playoff matches. With only the top two from this tournament qualifying for Division Four in Tanzania later in the year, Botswana missed out on the chance to take their 2011 World Cup dream any further.[9]

In October 2008, Botswana took part in Division Two of the African region of the World Cricket League, finishing unbeaten and winning the tournament. This victory promoted them to Division One of the Africa Region, however the date and venue for this tournament is still to be determined.[10]

In August 2009, Botswana travelled to Singapore to participate in Division Six of the World Cricket League. Despite being competitive in most of their games, Botswana won only one of five group matches and finished fifth after beating Norway in a positional playoff.[11]

In May 2011, Botswana hosted the ICC World Cricket League Division Seven with a young squad and performed admirably well, winning three league stage matches against Norway, Japan and Germany but losing out to eventual champions Kuwait, 2nd placed Nigeria and finally Germany in the placing match. The match versus Nigeria in the league stages was to decide which of the 2 nations would progress to the ICC World Cricket League Division Six to be held in Malaysia in September 2011 and by losing that match, Botswana failed to progress and will remain in Division Seven till the next instalment of the ICC WCL.

In April 2013, Botswana were given hosting rights again for the ICC World Cricket League Division 7 in their second attempt in trying to get promoted out of Division 7 after halting the relegation slide in the last edition. Beating Ghana in the first match, Botswana lost their second match in a competitive encounter against Vanuatu by 23 runs. Botswana then lost third next match heavily to eventual WCL Div 7 winners and arch rivals Nigeria. Botswana tried in vain to get back into contention for promotion but after a tied match against Germany, all hopes were dashed and the best they could hope for was a 3rd place finish. This was achieved by beating Fiji in the last group match and then beating them again in the 3rd place playoff earning Botswana a respectable 3rd place, finishing behind Vanuatu and Nigeria who were both promoted to Division 6 of the WCL. With ICC's decision to eliminate the ICC World Cricket League Divisions 7 and 8, this meant that Botswana will now have to qualify through regional tournaments to make it into the ICC World Cricket League Division 6, which will now be the entry point for the World Cricket League.

Tournament history

World Cricket League Africa Region

World Cricket League

Squad

Current squad

The 17 players in Botswana's squad for 2015 ICC Africa Twenty20 Division One which was held in Benoni, South Africa in March 2015 and the ICC World Cricket League Division Seven hosted in Gaborone, Botswana in April 2013 are listed below:[15]-

Coaching Staff

References

  1. 1 2 3 Botswana at Cricket Archive
  2. 1 2 Jersey to host World Cricket League Division Five Archived 24 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine., ICC Media Release
  3. ↑ ICC's one-day rankings
  4. ↑ Deepak Madangarli (19 August 2015). BCA Activities Update – Botswana Cricket Association. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  5. ↑ History of cricket in Botswana Archived 17 February 2006 at the Wayback Machine.
  6. ↑ 2002 Africa Cup at CricketEurope
  7. ↑ 2005 ICC Trophy African qualifying at the tournament's official website
  8. ↑ 2006 WCL Africa Region Division Two Archived 16 January 2007 at the Wayback Machine. at CricketEurope
  9. ↑ , Cricinfo, Accessed 2 September 2009
  10. 1 2 "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 12 October 2012. Retrieved 2015-07-31., Cricinfo, Accessed 1 November 2008
  11. ↑ , Cricinfo, Accessed 18 September 2009
  12. ↑ , Cricket Archive, Accessed 1 November 2008
  13. ↑ , Cricinfo, Accessed 18 September 2009
  14. ↑ , Cricinfo, Accessed 18 September 2009
  15. ↑
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