Nigeria’s senior women’s cricket team, coach Leye Oyede has backed the team to qualify for the global qualifiers of the 2026 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.
The Female Yellow Greens are intensifying preparations with a close camp training in Lagos ahead of the Africa Qualifiers, which is billed for Namibia from August 28 to September 7.
Oyede is confident that the team will emerge victorious in the Qualifiers, and also the World Cup.
He said: “I think we have a big chance at qualifying. Two teams are qualifying from the stage for the global qualifiers. If we put up a good fight, we can make it into the semis, which determines the qualification.
“We are playing Sierra Leone in the first game and the hosts, Namibia, in the second game. Namibia used to beat us, but we have beaten them recently, and that has helped us a lot. Every opponent knows that we aren’t coming just to participate, and I think how well we do in our first two games will go a long way in pushing us towards our goal.”
The squad will be announced next week as Nigeria will battle it out with Zimbabwe, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone at the qualifiers.
Only the top two teams in the tournament will qualify for the global qualifiers, which will serve as a qualifier for the 2026 Women’s T20 World Cup in England.
The 2026 Women’s T20 World Cup will be the tenth edition of the Women’s T20 World Cup, a biennial Twenty20 International (T20I) tournament.
The 12 qualifying teams are divided into two groups of six teams; all the six teams in a group play with all the others for a total of fifteen matches, and the top two teams in each group advance to the knockout stage.
