The Africa T20 Cup was a

Twenty20 cricket Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single innin ...

tournament organised by

Cricket South Africa Cricket South Africa (CSA) is the governing body for both professional and amateur cricket in South Africa. In 1991, the separate South African Cricket Union and the South African Cricket Board merged to form the United Cricket Board of South Afr ...

. It featured a combination of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

n provincial teams and teams representing other African countries, including

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

, and

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

. It ran for four years before being replaced by the CSA Provincial T20 Cup. The first edition of the tournament was played in September and October 2015, as a precursor to the 2015–16 South African domestic season. It was won by Northerns, which defeated KwaZulu-Natal Inland in the final by seven wickets. The second edition of the tournament was played in September and October 2016. It was won by Eastern Province, who defeated Northern Cape in the final by 31 runs.

Background

The Africa T20 Cup has been characterised as "essentially a showcase in cricket development". The South African teams have various restrictions on the composition of their squads – they had to feature no more than four players from the professional franchises, at least two players under the age of 21, and at least six players of colour (including at least three Black Africans). The Africa T20 Cup partially filled the gap left in the South African calendar by the cancellation of the

Champions League Twenty20 The Champions League Twenty20, also referred to as the CLT20, was an annual international Twenty20 Cricket competition played between qualifying domestic teams from some major cricketing nations. The competition was launched in 2008 with the f ...

. The SuperSport television network, a major sponsor of Cricket South Africa, was the tournament's broadcaster.

Expansion

In 2016, it was suggested that the Africa T20 Cup would be expanded in the future to include other African countries, such as

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...

."Africa T20 Cup is about unearthing gems"
''IOL'', 27 September 2015. Retrieved 23 August 2016. For the 2018 edition, the number of teams was increased from 16 to 20, with the addition of the South African teams of

Limpopo Limpopo is the northernmost province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The capital and largest city in the province is Polokwane, while the provincial legislature is ...

and Mpumalanga, along with national representation from

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

and

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

. However, Ghana declined Cricket South Africa's invite to compete in the tournament, and were replaced by

Results

Teams

* Boland *

Border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

* Eastern Province * Easterns * Free State *

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

* KwaZulu-Natal * KwaZulu-Natal Inland *

* Mpumalanga *

* Northern Cape * Northerns *

North West The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

* South Western Districts *

Western Province Western Province or West Province may refer to: * Western Province, Cameroon *Western Province, Rwanda *Western Province (Kenya) *Western Province (Papua New Guinea) *Western Province (Solomon Islands) *Western Province, Sri Lanka *Western Provin ...

/Zimbabwe Development XI

References

{{Twenty20 leagues South African domestic cricket competitions International cricket competitions in South Africa Twenty20 cricket leagues 2015 establishments in Africa Recurring sporting events established in 2015 Sports leagues established in 2015

Background

Expansion

Results

Teams

See also

References