Uganda Cricket Association (UCA) will be hosting the Men’s National Teams of Namibia (A), United Arab Emirates (UAE), Nigeria and Kenya in the 2nd edition of the Pearl of Africa T20 International tournament (with ICC team ranking points) from July 18th – 27th, 2025. Uganda are the Defending Champions from the inaugural edition held back in 2021, which featured Kenya and Nigeria. All matches featuring Namibia A will not be carrying in ICC T20I team ranking points. Kuwait Team, who were originally announced as a participant, has withdrawn from participating in the event, and Nigeria Team have replaced them in the tournament. All Teams will play each other in a double round-robin group stage format.
The tournament features two (2) of the current ICC CWC League 2 ODI Championship participants in Namibia and UAE, and two (2) teams from the ICC CWC Challenge League List-A Championship in Uganda and Kenya. All these countries will be part of their respective regional qualification tournaments later this year towards the 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, and this series will provide competitive game-time for each of the teams ahead of forthcoming ICC events. Since events such as these, featuring Associate member teams from different regions seldom happen outside of ICC Global events, it brings a lot of first-time meetings in Men’s T20Is on the fore, with Kenya and Uganda having never played a T20I with UAE.
Pearl of Africa T20I 2025 Schedule
Uganda: Juma Miyaji (Captain), Robinson Obuya, Raghav Dhawan, Frank Nsubuga, Matthew Musinguzi, Dinesh Nakrani, Alpesh Ramjani, Shrideep Mangela, Cosmas Kyewuta, Cyrus Kakuru, Ronald Lutaaya, Innocent Mwebaze, Joseph Baguma and Calvin Watuwa
Kenya: Dhiren Gondaria (Captain), Pushkar Sharma, Rakep Patel, Vraj Patel, Sukhdeep Singh, Tanzeel Shaikh, Lucas Oluoch, Jasraj Kundi, Shem Ngoche, Vishil Patel, Peter Koech, Gerard Mwendwa, Franchis Mutua and Sachin Gill
Nigeria: Sylvester Okpe (Captain), Sulaimon Runsewe, Selim Salau, Solomon Chilemanya, Elijah Olaleye, Danladi Isaac, Akhere Isesele, Isaac Okpe, Vincent Adewoye, David Ankrah, Peter Aho, Mohammed Taiwo, Prosper Useni and Jimoh Abdulrahman
United Arab Emirates: Muhammad Waseem (Captain), Akif Raja, Alishan Sharafu, Aryansh Sharma, Asif Khan, Dhruv Parashar, Ethan D’ Souza, Haider Ali, Matiullah Khan, Muhammad Zohaib, Muhammad Zuhaib, Rahul Chopra, Rohid Khan and Saghir Khan
Namibia A: JC Balt (Captain), Zacheo Van Vuuren, Dylan Leicher, Adriaan Coetzee, Dian Neethling, Handre Klazinga, Jan Izak de Villiers, Jack Brassell, PD Blignaut, Simon Shikongo, Junior Kariata, Liam Basson, Max Heingo and Zhivago Groenewald
17th – 18th July 2025: Uganda A vs Namibia A (Scorecard) ; Kenya vs Nigeria (Scorecard) ; Nigeria vs Uganda (Scorecard) ; UAE vs Kenya (Scorecard)
19th – 21st July 2025: Namibia A vs Nigeria (Scorecard) ; Uganda vs UAE (Scorecard) ; UAE vs Nigeria (Scorecard) ; Kenya vs Uganda (Scorecard)
22nd – 23rd July 2025: Namibia A vs Kenya (Scorecard) ; Uganda vs Nigeria (Scorecard) ; Kenya vs UAE (Scorecard) ; Uganda A vs Namibia A (Scorecard)
25th – 26th July 2025: Kenya vs Uganda (Scorecard) ; Namibia A vs Nigeria (Scorecard) ; Nigeria vs UAE (Scorecard) ; Kenya vs Namibia A (Scorecard)
27th July 2025: Kenya vs Nigeria (Scorecard) ; UAE vs Uganda (Scorecard)
2 thoughts on “Uganda Cricket to host 2nd edition of Pearl of Africa T20I tournament in July 2025”
Why Namibia A instead of Namibia regular team?
Hello
For reasons they only know, Cricket Namibia is using this tournament to give more competitive game-time to players part of their bench strength for future stints with the senior team. This helps in the development of the players they looking for on a long-term basis. But, there will surely be few players in the squad, who have already made their senior team debuts in the last 1-2 years.
Thanks and regards,
Czarsportz Admin
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