The Botswana women’s national cricket has failed to achieve its desired goal of qualifying for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup which be held in India and Sri Lanka next year after suffering a defeat against Rwanda and Sierra Leone at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier Division Two.
Sierra Leone, Mozambique, eSwatini, Cameroon, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, and hosts Botswana participated in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier Division held in Gaborone from on July 20th – 27th 2025.
Botswana women finished on the third position after defeating Malawi in a playoff match, scoring 143/6 in 20 over. Team Botswana’s top 20 scorers are Amantle Mokgotlhe with 60 runs off 46 balls, with 8 fours and 0 sixes, and Wendy Moutswi with 36 runs off 57 balls, with 1 four and 0 sixes.
Mozambique and Cameroon took fifth and sixth places respectively, while Lesotho claimed the seventh after defeating Eswatini. The top two teams Rwanda and Sierra Leone have sealed their spots for the Africa finals (Division One Qualifier) to be held from August 31st in Namibia, while Botswana’s loss marked the end of the journey to progress to the Africa finals.
The two progressing teams will join Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe in the Division One tournament, held in Namibia in September. The top two teams of that tournament will then move forward to next year’s Global Qualifier.
In an interview, (BCA) Vice Chairman Sumod Damodar said that it was important for them to clinch the top teams spot and to win more games so that they can they can retain or improve on ICC global rankings, instead they dropped drastically to position 46.
“We didn’t achieve our goals and targets, and the results are very disappointing. We cannot continue to be satisfied with participating and not winning when the sole purpose of all competitions is to emerge victorious,” he said.
Meanwhile, Uganda won the Africa Qualifier tournament held in Windhoek in 2017. The 2019 ICC Women’s Qualifier Africa took place in Zimbabwe, where the host nation defeated Namibia by 50 runs in the final to claim the title. However, in July 2019, the International Cricket Council (ICC) suspended Zimbabwe Cricket, barring the team from participating in ICC events. As a result, Namibia was confirmed by the ICC to replace Zimbabwe in the 2019 ICC Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier tournament.
Namibia topped Group B, winning all their matches to secure a place in the semi-finals, with Uganda joining them as group runners-up. In Group A, Zimbabwe finished with a perfect record, setting up a semi-final clash against Uganda. Both Zimbabwe and Namibia won their respective semi-final matches to advance to the tournament final. Zimbabwe defeated Namibia by 13 runs in the final to qualify for the World Twenty20 Qualifier tournament. Zimbabwe defeated Thailand for third place in the 2022 World Twenty20 Qualifier.
The 2023 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier was part of the pathway to the 2024 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup. The tournament began with Division Two, featuring eight teams and taking place in Botswana in 2023. Botswana and Kenya secured their places in Division One by reaching the Division Two final, where Kenya won by nine wickets. In Division One, Zimbabwe and Uganda advanced to the final, earning qualification for the 2024 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier. Zimbabwe went on to defeat Uganda in the final.
