Uganda creates history, qualifies for 2024 T20 World Cup; Zimbabwe miss out

Uganda has created history by qualifying for their maiden ICC World Cup – 2024 T20 World Cup, leaving Zimbabwe crashing out of contention from the 20-team tournament. A win over Rwanda by nine wickets on Thursday helped Uganda become the second team after Namibia in the African Qualifiers to go through. All 20 teams have now qualified for the T20 World Cup, scheduled in the West Indies and the USA.

• West Indies
• USA
• India
• Australia
• New Zealand
• Pakistan
• England
• South Africa
• Netherlands
• Sri Lanka
• Afghanistan
• Bangladesh
• Canada
• Nepal
• Oman
• Papua New Guinea
• Ireland
• Scotland
• Namibia
• Uganda

Zimbabwe didn't qualify for anICC event for the second time in 2023 after failing to do sofor the 50-over World Cup earlier.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

With five wins from as many matches, Namibia qualified first, while Uganda winning five of their six contested games helped them punch the maiden World Cup ticket. Even though Zimbabwe beat Kenya by a whopping margin of 110 runs in their last league match, Uganda just had to win to go through, which they did convincingly.

Dismissing Rwanda on a mere 65 in 18.5 overs, Uganda chased the target in 8.1 overs. This win marked a historic moment for the African country, which qualified for an ICC event – across any format, for the first time.

ALSO READ:Understood Rohit Sharma's decision to not play me in ODI World Cup 2023 final, says R Ashwin

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s poor run in the Qualifiers continues. After failing to qualify for the 2019 World Cup in England, Zimbabwe didn’t feature in the 2021 T20 World Cup in the UAE because the ICC had suspended their board due to government interference in their cricket administration.

While they made it to the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia, beating Pakistan in their opener, Zimbabwe again failed to break into the top two teams in the 2023 World Cup Qualifiers at home. Sri Lanka and the Netherlands booked their ticket to India for the marquee event.

Loss to Namibia hurt Zimbabwe

After losing their opener to Namibia by seven wickets, head coach Dave Houghton labelled it an "embarrassingly bad" performance. Considering Namibia went on to win their remaining contested matches thus far, Zimbabwe had to beat all opponents.

However, an unlikely loss at the hands of Uganda by five wickets put their back against the wall. That result meant their chances of qualifying for the 2024 T20 World Cup were out of their grip as Uganda just had to beat Rwanda to go through instead, which eventually happened.

The 2024 T20 World Cup is scheduled to start on June 3, 2024.