Cricket: Ghana fails at ICC T20 Africa finals

Ghana’s senior men’s cricket team failed to advance to the next stage of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s T20 World Cup as they placed bottom of their group in the African final qualifiers in Kampala, Uganda.
Ghana earned just a point after failing to win a single match in the round-robin contest after playing against Namibia, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda.

Namibia and Kenya (with eight points apiece) qualified for the final qualification stage of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup to be staged in the United Arab Emirates in November where they stand to book tickets to the 2020 Cricket World Cup in Australia.

Ghana’s poor performance in the tournament cost the team valuable points and they slipped to the 28th spot out of 80 ranked nations in the latest ICC Men’s T20 Global ratings released early this month.

On the team’s return to Accra, the Captain, Isaac Kofi Otuafo Aboagye, admitted they fell short of the standard required to advance in the tournament.

“We went there to win and we did our best, just that our best wasn’t enough. We have learnt our lessons so we will work on them and perform better in future tournaments. The main problem is the turf, so if the association can provide at least one oval, it will help the team,” he said.

Aboagye called for some high-profile international matches to help the Ghana team prepare well for such international tournaments in order to perform better.

For his part, the President of the Ghana Cricket Association (GCA), Emmanuel Owusu-Ansah Asare, said he was disappointed at the poor performance of the team.

“I am devastated because I never thought we could come so low. I believed that by our ranking of the ICC we were capable of rising to higher heights. Read Full Story