Nigeria’s men senior cricket team the Yellow Greens have moved four places up in the latest International Cricket Council T20 rankings from 42nd to 38th in the world and also become the seventh ranked team in Africa.
The Yellow Greens progress is connected to their recent performance at the West Africa Trophy tournament in Lagos where they won all their 10 matches against Ghana, Sierra Leone and Rwanda to win the maiden title.
In their last 25 games, the Yellow Greens have amassed 1,860 points with a rating of 74. The African countries ahead of Nigeria on the continent are South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Uganda and Tanzania while India leads the world with a rating of 265 from 61 matches.
“We are tracking our performances; we just moved a step up from number eight in Africa to number seven. I believe that by 2026, we will be able to meet our overall aspiration of being a top three in Africa,” President of the Nigeria Cricket Federation, Uyi Akpata, said in reaction to the progress.
“The female is where I am seeing the best move for us. We have moved from 38 to 30. We won our invitational. In the middle of December, we are going for the World Cup qualifier and we stand a very big chance for the women to qualify for the ICC T20 World Cup for women.”
The Yellow Greens will hope to improve their ranking during the ICC T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier slated for November 20 to December 1 in Namibia.
In the women’s game, the Female Yellow Greens 30th position in the world and 8th in Africa is bettered by South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda. Australia leads the pack in the women’s T20.
The female Yellow Greens will also be seeking a place at the 2024 WT20 World Cup when they play in the qualifiers in Uganda by December before returning home for the Nigeria Cricket Federation Women International Invitational tournament in February.
Both the Yellow Greens and the Female Yellow Greens will feature at the maiden edition of cricket inclusion at the Africa Games in Ghana by March 2024.
