U-19 Female Cricket Team Lands in Tanzania for World Cup Qualifiers

Nigeria’s U-19 women’s cricket team, known as the Junior Female Yellow Greens, has landed in Tanzania. They are aiming to qualify for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in Bangladesh and Nepal next year, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

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

The team is coached by Sarah Bakhita and Theophilus Ibodeme. They received support from the high-performance manager of the Nigeria Cricket Federation. The team finished their training at the UNILAG Cricket Oval on Wednesday before leaving on Thursday.

Last week, the NCF announced a 14-player squad. This squad includes players from the team that made history in the 2025 U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup in Malaysia, where Nigeria came in sixth. They also have new players from the national U-17 championships.

Christabel Chukwuonye will lead the team as captain. She will play alongside regulars such as 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 kick off their campaign against Uganda on Sunday. They will then take on Malawi on Monday.

On Wednesday, September 2, they will play their last group match against the hosts, Tanzania.

If they finish in the top two, they will move on to the semi-finals. In the semi-finals, they will face one of the teams from Group B, which includes Kenya, Namibia, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe.

The winner of this tournament will join South Africa to represent Africa at the main event in 2027.

South Africa has already secured one of Africa’s spots. They finished among the top four teams in the last World Cup, which India won.

The matches will take place at the TCA Cricket Arena at the University of Dar es Salaam. Eight teams are competing for the one qualification spot available from this tournament.

Nigeria are the defending champions of the Africa Division 1 Qualifier. They qualified for the last World Cup after finishing above Zimbabwe in the group stage. Their final match against Zimbabwe was called off because of rain.