The Sierra Leone national cricket team is the men's team that represents

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...

international cricket International cricket matches are played between teams representing their nations, normally organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The main forms are Test matches, One-Day matches and Twenty20 matches. Most games are played ...

. They became an affiliate member of the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the world governing body of cricket. Headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, its members are 108 national associations, with 12 Full Members and 96 Associate Members. Founded in 1909 as the ' ...

(ICC) in 2002 and an associate member in 2017. In April 2018, the ICC decided to grant full

Twenty20 International A Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of cricket, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The matches have top-class status and are the ...

(T20I) status to all its members. Therefore, all

Twenty20 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 inn ...

matches played between Sierra Leone and other

ICC members The International Cricket Council (ICC) was founded at Lord's on 15 June 1909 as the Imperial Cricket Conference, with Australia, England, and South Africa as its founding members. In the beginning, only countries within the Commonwealth could ...

since 1 January 2019 have been full T20I matches.

History

The history of cricket in Sierra Leone dates back to the

Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate The Colony and Protectorate of Sierra Leone (informally British Sierra Leone) was the British colonial administration in Sierra Leone from 1808 to 1961, part of the British Empire from the abolitionism era until the decolonisation era. The C ...

when it was introduced by the British. In 1887, a Sierra Leone team played a two-day match against a team from the

West India Regiments The West India Regiments (WIR) were infantry units of the British Army recruited from and normally stationed in the British colonies of the Caribbean between 1795 and 1927. In 1888 the two West India Regiments then in existence were reduced t ...

. International cricket dates from the 1930s when Sierra Leone began to play Gambia. In 1967 the West African Championships were created with former British colonies

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 ...

and

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 ...

also sending teams. Starting in 1991, the

Sierra Leone Civil War The Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002), or the Sierra Leonean Civil War, was a civil war in Sierra Leone that began on 23 March 1991 when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), with support from the special forces of Liberian dictator Char ...

caused a decline in cricketing activity, with the country's main ground Kingtom Oval used as a refugee camp. Sierra Leone was a member of the

West Africa Cricket Council The West Africa Cricket Council was a regional body which organised cricket teams from Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. It ceased to exist in 1997 with the formation of the African Cricket Association, which now oversees all cricket admin ...

which became a member of the ICC in 1976 and fielded the West Africa cricket team, before being dissolved in 2003. The

Sierra Leone Cricket Association Sierra Leone Cricket Association is the official Sport governing body, governing body of cricket in Sierra Leone. Its headquarters is currently located in Brookfields National Stadium. The association represents Sierra Leone at the International ...

became an affiliate member of the ICC in its own right in 2002 and made its debut at an ICC tournament at the 2004 African Affiliates Championship, where they finished last out of the eight teams. They returned at the equivalent tournament in 2006, Division Three of the

African region The Africa Scout Region is the divisional office of the World Scout Bureau of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, with satellite offices in Cape Town, South Africa, and Dakar, Senegal. The Africa Region s ...

of the

World Cricket League The ICC World Cricket League (WCL) was a series of international one-day cricket tournaments for national teams without Test status (i.e., teams of Associate status) administered by the International Cricket Council. All Associate Members of ...

, where they had a major improvement, this time finishing as runners-up to

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

, and only just missing out on promotion to Division Two.

T20I status (2019-present)

Sierra Leone gained T20I status in 2019 and played their first match against Nigeria in 2021. In 2021 Sierra Leone was among five teams excluded from the

ICC T20I Championship The ICC Men's T20I Team Rankings is an international Twenty20 cricket rankings system of the International Cricket Council. After every T20I match, the two teams involved receive points based on a mathematical formula. The total of each team's p ...

for failing to play enough fixtures in the relevant period, an effect of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Records

International Match Summary — Sierra Leone ''Last updated 9 December 2022''

Twenty20 International

* Highest team total: 150/9 v.

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

on 2 December 2022 at Rwanda Cricket Stadium, Kigali * Highest individual score: 46, John Bangura v.

on 20 October 2021 at University of Lagos Cricket Oval,

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national capital of Nigeria until December 1991 fo ...

* Best individual bowling figures: 5/16, Abass Gbla v.

on 26 October 2021 at University of Lagos Cricket Oval,

T20I record versus other nations ''Records complete to T20I #1949. Last updated 9 December 2022.''

References

{{National sports teams of Sierra Leone Cricket in Sierra Leone National cricket teams

Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

Sierra Leone in international cricket

History

T20I status (2019-present)

Records

Twenty20 International

See also

References