OUDTSHOORN CRICKET NEWS - Cricket South Africa launched the fourth edition of the Africa T20 Cup on Tuesday. It will feature an additional four teams, namely international teams Nigeria and Ghana alongside Mpumalanga and Limpopo, taking part in the 2018/19 season curtain-raiser.
The competition will take place over two jam-packed weekends of cricket from 14 to 16 and 23 to 24 September. Oudtshoorn will host games in Pool B from 14 to 16 September.
The 20 participating teams are the 12 CSA Affiliates, three Associate Members and the five guest African countries. They have been drawn into four pools of five, with the winners of each group advancing through to the semi-finals.
In a change from last year's format, the T20 showpiece will take place over two weekends compared to the previous four, with defending champions KwaZulu-Natal Inland (Pietermaritzburg) along with Border (East London), South Western Districts (Oudtshoorn) and Boland (Paarl) hosting their respective groups during the weekend of 14 to 16 September.
The hosts of the semi-finals and final weekend will depend on which host teams advance through their group phase as well as their hosting capabilities during the competition. This is set to take place on 23 and 24 September.
"This being the fourth edition, this competition has grown tremendously," commented Corrie van Zyl, CSA General Manager: Cricket.
"The objectives that were set at the start have been met, over and over.
What also makes this year very exciting about this fourth edition is that we are expanding the Africa T20 Cup. Not just for our local teams but also for the teams in Africa.
"We wanted to expand the competition to 20 teams, so this gave us a chance to increase the opportunities for the African countries as well as give two more South African provinces in Mpumalanga and Limpopo an opportunity.
With the addition of Ghana and Nigeria to the existing African countries, the competition will include five African nations, with Kenya, Namibia and full International Cricket Council (ICC) member, Zimbabwe, taking part once again.
The draw results are as follows:
Pool A (Pietermaritzburg)
KwaZulu Natal Inland, Ghana, Easterns, Western Province and KwaZulu-Natal Coastal
Pool B (Oudtshoorn)
South Western Districts, Zimbabwe, Gauteng, Northerns and Free State.
Pool C (East London)
Border, Eastern Province, Kenya, Mpumalanga and Namibia
Pool D (Paarl)
Boland, North West, Northern Cape, Limpopo and Nigeria.
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