The Nigeria Cricket Federation has opened camp for the Junior Female Yellow Greens ahead of the 2027 ICC Women’s U-19 T20 World Cup qualifiers, scheduled to take place from September 25 to October 4 in Tanzania, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
- +NCF opens U-19 Women’s Cricket W’Cup qualifiers camp
Nigeria finished sixth at the last edition of the tournament in Malaysia.
Nigeria finished sixth at the last edition of the tournament in Malaysia. It was the country’s first appearance at the Women’s U-19 World Cup, and the team, led by captain Lucky Piety, defied expectations to advance to the Super Six stage in a group that included South Africa, New Zealand, and Samoa.
In preparation for the next tournament, which will be co-hosted by Bangladesh and Nepal, the federation has assembled 21 players for the first phase of camping ahead of the qualifiers later this year.
The players are currently camped at the NCF High-Performance Centre in Benin, Edo State, where they are being trained by Kenyan coach Sarah Bhakita, alongside the new Female Yellow Greens handler, Theophilus Ebidome. Both coaches, along with former Female Yellow Greens captain Blessing Etim, were part of the coaching crew that led the team to the last World Cup in Malaysia.
Most of the players in camp were scouted from the 2025 and 2026 National U-17 Championships, which have become a key pipeline for producing national team players.
The second phase of the camping will be done in Abuja before the final camping and selection for the qualifiers.
Nigeria will face Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, as well as Kenya and Malawi in the qualifiers in September. Kenya and Malawi earned promotion to Division 1 after finishing as the top two teams in the Division 2 qualifiers held in Uganda last month.
The winner of Division 1 will join South Africa as Africa’s representatives at the World Cup next year.
In October 2024, Nigeria stunned Zimbabwe in the final game to pick Africa’s sole ticket to the World Cup.
