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Tag: Namibia

  • Nigeria Gears Up for 2025 U-19 Cricket World Cup Qualifiers

    Nigeria Gears Up for 2025 U-19 Cricket World Cup Qualifiers

    By   Milcah   Tanimu

    Nigeria’s women U-19 cricket team, the Junior Female Yellow Greens, are intensifying their preparations for the 2025 U-19 T20 World Cup Qualifiers following recent changes in the tournament structure. The qualifiers, now set to take place in Kigali, Rwanda, have been rescheduled, granting the team additional time to prepare.

    Originally, the tournament was structured into two groups of seven teams each. However, the late inclusion of Zimbabwe necessitated the formation of a new division, leading to a reorganization of the tournament. The Junior Female Yellow Greens have been placed in Division 1 of the Africa Qualifiers, which commenced on August 21, 2024. This division includes strong teams such as Nigeria, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

    Division 2, featuring Botswana, Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, and Sierra Leone, is being played in a round-robin format. The top two teams from Division 2 will advance to join the teams in Division 1 for the final qualifiers.

    The Division 1 qualifiers are scheduled to run from September 23 to 29, 2024, in Kigali. The winner of this division will secure Africa’s second spot in the U-19 T20 World Cup, set to be held from January 8 to February 2, 2025, in Malaysia. The World Cup will also feature South Africa, New Zealand, and Samoa in Group C.

    The Junior Female Yellow Greens have been training diligently at the Nigeria Cricket Federation’s High Performance Centre in Benin City, Edo State. They are expected to move to Lagos for final preparations before heading to Rwanda for the qualifiers.

  • Omicron: Canada Lifts Travel Ban On Nigeria, Other African Countries

    Omicron: Canada Lifts Travel Ban On Nigeria, Other African Countries

    Canada announced Friday the lifting of a ban on foreign travelers from 10 African countries, while reimposing testing and warning that the Omicron variant of Covid-19 risks quickly overwhelming hospitals.

    The travel restriction on flights from South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini, Namibia, Nigeria, Malawi and Egypt will end at 11:59 pm on Saturday (0459 GMT Sunday), Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos told a news conference.

    The restriction had been announced last month “to slow the arrival of Omicron in Canada and buy us some time,” he said. But with Omicron now spreading within Canada it is “no longer needed.”

    Pre-arrival negative PCR tests for all travelers would also be reinstated as of December 21, Duclos said, while repeating a government warning earlier this week that “now is not the time to travel.”

    Officials said laboratory tests have confirmed as of Friday nearly 350 cases of the Omicron variant across Canada.

    The total average daily Covid case count, meanwhile, has jumped by 45 percent in the past week to about 5,000.

    “It is expected the sheer number of (Omicron) cases could inundate the health system in a very short period of time,” said Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam.