Batsman Sean Phillips was Nigeria's best player in the tournament © Getty Images

A dominant Nigeria prevailed in the ICC Africa World Cricket League T20 Division Two tournament in Johannesburg, defeating Tanzania in their final game to top with tables with 14 points from seven victories.

Yet again batsman Sean Phillips was the star performer for Nigeria, racing to an unbeaten 80 as his team reached 150 for 6. His knock means he ends the tournament with 446 runs, including two centuries, at an average of 148. Tanzania’s batsmen made a fist of their chase but fell just short, reaching 144 for 4 before they ran out of overs.

Nigeria and Ghana, who finished in second position with 12 points and ahead of Botswana on net run-rate, will now proceed to the Division One Twenty20 tournament, which is scheduled to be held in Entebbe, Uganda in July this year.

UAE and Namibia have been selected to join the top six Associate and Affiliate nations in the next edition of the Intercontinental Cup. They were picked based on their performances in World Cricket League Division Two, where they finished in the top four, and take the first-class tournament back to its previous structure of eight teams.

Click here for the full story.

Sweden completed a clean sweep of the ICC Europe Division 3 tournament in Solvenia meaning they progress to the Division 2 event in Belgium next month. Estonia finished second ahead of the hosts.

Sweden were the stand-out team throughout the four-day competition and brushed aside Bulgaria on Saturday who were bowled out for 50 in 12.4 overs as Serge Conein took 4 for 21. Sweden knocked off the runs in just 7.1 overs

With a new European structure in place this year, Slovenia will host the ICC European Division Three Championship from May 11 to 14. The squads for the six teams taking part - Slovenia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Slovenia, Sweden and Turkey - have been finalised and success will bring the prize of a place in the ICC European Division Two tournament in Belgium in June. Beyond that, teams will look to the theoretical prospect of progress to Division One, the global qualifier in the UAE next March, and the World Twenty20 championship itself, to be held in Sri Lanka in 2012.

Hosts Slovenia are unquestionably the most experienced side in the tournament, having taken part in European competitions since 2000. Most recently, they played in the ICC European Division Four of the 50-over championship in Cyprus in 2009, where they finished without a win.

Batsman Tom Furness takes over the captaincy from Mark Oman, and the side will be reinforced by the return of Stephen Mayland, who missed out on the Cyprus event. The squad includes seven Slovenian-born players, including newcomers Blaz Praper and Primoz Pustoslemsek.

Of the remaining sides, Sweden have the best credentials, having finished second to hosts Hellas in the Division Five tournament in Corfu two years ago. Seven of that squad will be in Slovenia, including the leading wicket-taker in Corfu, Afghan-born Azam Khalil, who took 16 wickets at an average of 6.31.

A new-look Czech Republic team contains only four of the side from Corfu, including captain Scott Page. The squad includes three Czech-born 17-year-olds, in Adam Holub, Damian Kysely and Alexander Storek.

The remaining three sides, Estonia, Turkey and Bulgaria, all made their international debuts in Corfu, each winning one match. Murali Obili, who was the leading allrounder from that event with 146 runs and 13 wickets at 9.62, will be a key member of the Estonia team, which also includes another 17-year-old, the Estonian-born Marten Kundla.

Turkey will field seven new players, with Huseyin Sen again the only Turkish-born member of the squad. The captaincy has been assumed by wicketkeeper Muhammad Aasim.

There are two venues for the tournament, Ljublijana Cricket Club in Valburga and Velden Cricket Club.

Bulgaria Saif-ur Rehman (capt), Stuart Clarkson, Ivan Dimitrov, Ivaylo Dunchev, Mohamad Hanif, Amal John, Ivaylo Katzarski, Mushtaq Lone, Prakash Mishra, Vladimir Ruskov, Danail Trenev, Georgi Velinov, Lyubomir Zanev, Leven Kortel, Lyudmil Trenev

Czech Republic Scott Page (capt), Sunil Ambar, Hugo Banks, John Corness, Sivagnanam Gnanatheeswaran, Adam Holub, Vojtech Hasa, Damian Kesely, Jobi Samuel, Brigmam Smith, Benjamin Soucek , Mikulas Stary, Alexander Arthur Storek.

Estonia Sivalingham Arunachalam, Andres Burget, Vineeth Govind, Timothy Heath, Peter van Buuren , Marten Kundla, Murali Obili, Anil Puri, Moshiur Rahman, Nand Lal Riar, Oliver Slobodetsky, Mart Tammoja, Marko Vaik, Kalle Vilslapuu

Slovenia Tom Furness (capt), Urban Blaznik, Domen Bohinc, Rok Bohinc, Robert Crawford, Bradley Eve, Lalantha Karunatilake, Simon Kaučič, Stephen Mayland, Mark Oman, Blaž Praper, Primož Pustoslemšek, Nejc Zupan

Sweden Imran Amjad, Serge Conein, Sanaullah Habibzai, Azam Khalil, Maqsood Khawaja, Azam Mohammad, Shahid Mustafa, Ewan Prezens, Piyal Rahman, Sunny Sharma, Sadat Sidiqi, Bilal Zaigham, Hassan Zaigham, Ahmad Zadran, Aman Khan Zahid, Sandeep Sharma

Turkey Muhammad Aasim (capt), Muneer Ahmed, Salman Ali, Sajjad Haider, Mubashir Khan, Nabeel Munir, Abdullah Numan, Mohammad Razak, Huseyin Sen, Imran Sharif, Ali Turkmen, Mecit Turkmenoglu, Hammad Ul Haq

Cricket Espana, in collaboration with the MCC and the ICC, is all set to host a national cricket festival on May 15. The festival includes events that will introduce Spanish locals and expats to cricket, through schools, colleges and clubs, and give young enthusiasts a chance to get some coaching and take part in cricket competitions.

Following a visit to La Manga – a five-star sports resort in Murcia – last year, where the MCC played two matches against the Spanish national team, the club decided to fund the festival, along with the ICC. The main events, including a Twenty20 competition, are reportedly scheduled to be held at La Manga.

With its Mediterranean climate, La Manga is used by various professional cricket sides, including English counties, as a training base. The resort also runs junior cricket academies, and has recently had two turf pitches and four full-length nets installed.

By Andre Leslie

At the halfway mark of the tournament I'd be lying if I said it's been all sweet-smelling roses so far for us [Germany].

Today's match against Botswana ended in a narrow loss – tough to swallow after we put in another fighting performance. After a top effort from our middle order to get us up to 229 from 47 overs, we just didn't put in the performance we wanted in the field. Credit to Botswana, who held their nerve well at the end.

It was nice to be visited by the German Ambassador to Botswana, Annette Guenther, before today's game. She was there at the close of play too. I suspect that – despite our loss – we managed to win over another fan for cricket. The final stages of the game were very tense.

Tomorrow we take on Kuwait. We played them in Division 8 in November, so we know what to expect from them. It will be a crucial game. A win will really help our chances of staying higher up in this division.

I almost forgot to mention: yesterday we managed to get in a visit to Gaborone Game Reserve as it was our day off. I thought the trip was well worth it. We saw deer, ostriches, zebras, monkeys and kudus [a species of antelope], all running around wild. Bravo to a great idea from our team manager Ben, whose efforts sometimes go a bit unnoticed!

Cricket Kenya has announced new 20 and 50-over domestic competitions aimed at bolstering the standard of cricket in the country. The inclusion of two Ugandan sides in the six-team set-up will also provide a valuable boost to their up-and-coming neighbours.

The gulf between the NPCA league, Kenya's premier competition, and the national side has been a worry for a long time. In 2009 an attempt was made to establish a four-team elite event in both three-day and limited-over formats, but it foundered because of a lack of finance and poor support from players.

The latest initiative will feature four Kenyan sides - two from Nairobi, one each from Coast and Rift Valley - as well as two Ugandan teams. Each side will play ten games over weekends, with a Twenty20 match on a Saturday followed a day later by a 50-over contest. The leading four teams in each event would then progress to play-offs and a final.

Nationally contracted players will be split between sides to ensure a fair balance between the competitors, and Tom Sears, Cricket Kenya's chief executive, told ESPNcricinfo there were also plans to bring in overseas players from the subcontinent. "I believe by bringing in players from abroad we have the best chance of our players improving their game," he said.

Original plans had been for all six sides to come from within Kenya, but Sears admitted that "the level of competition was such that we could offer not enough strength in depth to provide strong enough cricket". He added that as Africa's leading Associate, it was Kenya's responsibility to help the progress of Uganda. "They have good players," he said. "That's why we opted to give them a chance to take part."

It was also revealed that a media deal had been agreed with Supersport for them to cover the semi-finals and finals of each competition.

By Andre Leslie

On Sunday, we had the honour of being part of the first match played on the new pitch at Lobatse, south of Gaborone. It was a really fun day, with plenty of locals coming down and volunteers everywhere making sure things ran smoothly.

Against Japan, our bowlers started really well, but we met a fair bit of resistance from their lower order. It was always to be expected; there's a lot riding on this tournament for the competing nations and every team is sure to have plenty of fight. But thankfully our batters did the job and got us to the target for the loss of just one wicket. It was nice to play a role in that personally.

We also showed a lot of determination in the field against Nigeria today. But, in hindsight, we just simply didn't make enough runs. One hundred and sixty six on the Lobatse pitch wasn't what we had hoped for. In the end, a solid innings from one of their players got them over the line. We had eight of their batsmen out when they passed our score.

Now it's time for a rest day. The team are keen to go to a lion park. Our next game is on Wednesday, against the hosts Botswana.

By Andre Leslie

After a 14 hour flight via South Africa, our guys have now well and truly set up camp here in Gaborone, at the Gaborone Sun hotel.

Our cricket season in Germany has only just begun, so we've been thankful for the opportunity to train here for the last two days. Training facilities at the Botswana Cricket Association are great and they are just around the corner. That's a nice change from Berlin, where we have to travel to the outskirts of town to train at the city's only pitch. If and when it's open.

In our final team meeting yesterday we talked through some plans of attack. We all agreed that it's important to get off to a good start in this tournament. We won the first matches of both of our last two campaigns, in Guernsey and Kuwait, and it gave us a real kick start. Just like on those two occasions our aim here in Botswana is to finish first. That's the same for every team here, I'm sure.

There was a big thunderstorm here in Gabarone yesterday afternoon. We are hoping the weather won't affect our first match of the tournament today against Japan.