Zambia will hold a one-month training camp at home before heading off to United Arab Emirates (UAE) to play warm-up matches against a UAE development XI to build up to next month's World Cricket League Division Eight in Kuwait.

The Zambians, coached by former South African batsman Peter Kirsten, will play three games against the UAE XI where he hopes his side can put into practice what was covered during the Lusaka-based camp.

"We will be concentrating on specific 'one-on-one' drills and team-related match practices against local opposition. Much attention will be given to game plans, physical and mental sharpness, [with] the captain playing a vital leading role," Kirsten told ESPNcricinfo.

Kirsten was typically upbeat and believed his side would rise to the occasion of playing a team from another country. "The squad is well balanced, a good blend of youth and experience comprising medium-fast bowlers, spinners and batsmen," he said.

“The team is in confident frame of mind, very enthusiastic and is hungry for success. They will be playing against other countries for the first time, which is always a motivating factor. They have been a joy to coach and clearly have a passion for the game."

The timing of the World Cricket League Division Eight should suit Zambia, who are in Group B with Bahamas, Germany and Gibraltar. The Zambian season finishes at the end of October with their opening game, against Germany, on November 6. They then play Bahamas a day later and Gibraltar on November 9 before the semi-finals and classifications matches.

Group A consists of Suriname, Kuwait, Vanuatu and Bhutan.

Zambia 214 (50 overs) beat Mozambique 194 (49 overs) by 20 runs

Zambia have booked themselves a place in the World Cricket League Division Eight tournament in Kuwait in December. This came after their 20 run win over Mozambique in Benoni, South Africa on the last day of the tournament on Thursday to win the Africa Division Two tournament.

Zambia won the toss and elected to bat. They set a defendable target, posting 214 in their allotted 50 overs. The foundation of the Zambian innings was set by Salvas Palel with a gutsy 69 off 84 balls and Sharif Yousuf who struck a breezy 64 from just 51 balls.

Mozambique made a game attempt at chasing down the Zambian total, with allrounder Mohammed Zulpicus smashing 77 off 67 balls. However, there wasn't enough support and Zambia emerged winners by 20 runs.

Ghana 194 (48.5 overs) beat Sierra Leone 127 (39.3 overs) by 65 runs

The all-West African clash between Ghana and Sierra Leone would have pleased the development-minded featuring two young fully indigenous teams Ghana elected to bat and eked out a painstaking 194 all out. Sierra Leone pursued the target purposefully, but losing early wickets slowed their progress. Captain Lansana Lamin's 45 from 57 gave some hope, but four wickets to Ghana's Lawrence Ateak broke Sierra Leone's innings and Ghana won by 65 runs.

Swaziland 70 for 1 (8.1 overs) beat Malawi 69 (20 overs) by nine wickets

Swaziland ensured Malawi's brief stay in Division Two ended swiftly but painfully with an emphatic nine wicket win. The match lasted 28.1 overs, as Malawi was dismissed for 69 in 20 overs, and then Swaziland needed just 49 balls to pass the Malawian total. Estean Sauerman was the destroyer taking eight Malawian wickets.

Zambia asserted itself as a threat in the Africa Division Two tournament in Benoni, South Africa, with a resounding 114-run win over Malawi on Tuesday.

On another wet and damp Benoni day, Swaziland won the other match played, beating Sierra Leone by 30 runs after their target was adjusted after input from Messrs Duckworth & Lewis. Originally a reserve day in the tournament, the two matches played were originally postponed from Sunday. The weather saw both matches reduced to 46 overs each.

Zambia continued their good run of form with a comprehensive win over Malawi. After being sent in, Zambia found themselves in early trouble slipping to 10 for 2 before a third-wicket partnership for 64 runs saw Abib Patel (24) and Marcus Pieterse (34) restore a degree of respectability to the Zambian innings.

Imraan Patel's unbeaten 55 saw the Zambian innings close at 189 all out in the 46th over. Muzikir Khan shorn with the ball for Malawi with a sparkling return of four wickets for 31 runs in his allotted nine overs. Zambia coach Peter Kirsten described Imraan's innings as "a gem."
In the run chase, Malawi found themselves in early trouble at 17 for 4 in the 12th over but
middle order batsmen Muzikir Khan steadied things with 33. Godfrey Kandela was the
destroyer for Zambia, returning three wickets for 15 runs in nine overs. Kandela's spell
prevented the Malawian innings from team establishing any sort of foundation and
were bowled out for 75 runs.

Kirsten added “I am very pleased with the team's performance today, they showed a lot of grit in very trying conditions to set the target of 189.”

In the other postponed match, Swaziland won the toss and put Sierra Leone in to bat
Ibrahim Mansaray top scored for Sierra Leone with 40 off 95 balls. They struggled
to reach 134 all out in their 36th over. Saif Habib was the best Swaziland bowler with three wickets for 22 runs from five overs.

With rain threatening, Swaziland began their innings in aggressive fashion. Opener
Naeem Gull smashed a brisk unbeaten 42 from 57 balls. The policy was rewarded when the umpires called the match off due to rain and Swaziland was awarded the match after Duckworth/Lewis adjustments to win by 30 runs.

Malawi v. Zambia
Zambia 189 for 10 after 45.5 overs
Malawi 75 for 10 after 34 overs
Zambia won by 114 runs

Swaziland v Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone 134 for 10 after 36 overs
Swaziland 84 for 3 after 20 overs
Swaziland won by 30 runs (D/L method)

Tony Munro

Peter Kirsten, the former South African batsman and ex-Jersey coach, will coach Zambia at the World Cricket League (WCL) Africa Division Two tournament from April 24 to 29 in Benoni, South Africa.

Kirsten coached Jersey in 2008, experiencing first-up success in guiding them to promotion from WCL Division Five on home soil in Jersey. The Division Four campaign in Tanzania was an unhappy one as Jersey won one match out of six to be relegated straight back to Division Five.

The former Derbyshire and Sussex batsman has been in Lusaka since early March, coaching the Zambian squad. He told the Zambia Post newspaper his goal was to see Zambia qualify for Division Eight of the global level of the WCL, which is to be held in Kuwait in December. Zambia was part of the old East African Cricket Conference, also comprising Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

The squad for the tournament starting this Saturday includes the bulk of the side which finished third in the 2008 Division Two event, behind Botswana and Nigeria. Zambia is the top-ranked team in this tournament.

Zambia's first match is against Sierra Leone on April 24. Also competing are Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique and Swaziland.

Zambia: Abid Patel, Allan Nsensha, Andrew Toms, Ashraf Lulat, Godfrey Kandela, Gladson Kandela, Imran Suleman Patel, Markus Pieterse, Meeth Naik, Mohamed Mitha, Sarfraz Patel, Sarfarajhusen Sopariya, Sharif Yousuf, Tapson Nyirongo

Africa needs to look hard at itself and ask this question: why are there only two teams from the continent going to New Zealand for the Under-19s World Cup in January? And of the two, no-one can ever be too sure about Zimbabwe.

No non-Test nation (apart, now, from Zimbabwe) has made it through from Africa; whereas Asia will have six representatives (two non-Test sides), the Americas and Caribbean three (two non-Test nations), the Antipodes three (Australia, New Zealand and non-Test Papua New Guinea), and Europe two (one non-Test).

Uganda nearly made it through, but in the end they came out also-rans and, like Vanuatu, hom they beat, were not really up to scratch. Sierra Leone did not appear for the Toronto qualifiers - might they have been a surprise package or, more likely, mere fodder for the better teams? And Kenya were a no-shower for other reasons, compounded in part by their own foolishness amid premature assumptions that they would host the tournament.

So, the second question is this - and it's one that's been asked before: whither Africa?

South Africa will always hold its own; Zimbabwe seems possibly to be coming back; Uganda (where 38,000 people play the game) still appears promising; and Kenya has a lot to do. Backstage, Tanzania also hold promise, but Botswana recently took a biffing at the World Cricket League Division 6 event in Singapore.

Nigeria may be an untapped talent; Ghana are making efforts to climb; Malawi, on the other hand, and Zambia too, have faded away. Namibia are somewhere in-between, blowing hot and cold. One day Morocco may come through, but it will be a long time before Mali does.
In the wings, and whether they can fly or not nobody really knows, are Mozambique, Rwanda, Lesotho, Swaziland, Cameroon and the Gambia, while way offshore there lies little St Helena.

As yet, no Egypt. Why not?

It's not a particularly rosy picture; nor is it one of total despair. What it does illustrate, though, is that more resources need to be ploughed into the continent and proper development programmes carried through.

We could start with no less than adequate press coverage of cricket, so desperately lacking across most of the continent. So let's start there; the oxygen of publicity may be the saving of cricket in Africa.

What do others say?

Colin MacBeth

Uganda and Sierra Leone booked their places in the Under-19 World Cup qualifying tournament later this year after finishing first and second in the Africa Under-19 Championship in Zambia. They will join Afghanistan, Hong Kong and the top two teams from the Americas, East Asia-Pacific and Europe regions in a play-off, from which the top five teams from that tournament will join the ten ICC Full Members and hosts Kenya in the 2010 Under-19 World Cup.

Uganda and Sierra Leone met in the final round of matches, and it was Uganda who won a rain-affected game despite being bowled out for 91. Chasing a revised target of 83 in 20 overs, Sierra Leone lost too many wickets too quickly and only managed 35 for 8, Geofrey Nyero returning remarkable figures of 6 for 7.

That result meant that Namibia could have overtaken Sierra Leone with an emphatic win over the hugely disappointing Kenyans, but after they had posted 158 for 7, the match was abandoned six overs into Kenya's reply. The one point Namibia earned was not enough.

Hosts Zambia finished fourth thanks to a 63-run win over Tanzania, but again the weather meant the game was decided by Duckworth-Lewis calculations. Zambia made 133 and Tanzania struggled to 42 for 7 before the rain returned.

Nigeria showed why they finished bottom without a win as they were dismissed for 68 by Botswana, who went on to amble to a six-wicket win.

               P   W  NR   L   Pts      NRR 

Uganda         7   6   0   1    12     -0.31

Sierra Leone   7   5   0   2    10      1.18

Namibia        7   4   1   2     9      0.83

Zambia         7   4   0   3     8      0.10

Kenya          7   3   1   3     7     -0.22

Botswana       7   3   0   4     6     -0.44

Tanzania       7   2   0   5     4     -0.43

Nigeria        7   0   0   7     0     -1.36

By Tony Munro

The Africa Division Two tournament which was due to start on Wednesday is likely to be moved to October and now be held in South Africa, an ICC spokesman has advised.

Teams had arrived in Lusaka, Zambia on Tuesday for the six team event when it was cancelled after a week of mourning was called following the death of Zambian President, Levy Mwanavasa, in France that day.

The nations due to compete were Botswana, Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, Swaziland and Zambia.

Zambia have been appointed two host two international tournaments later this year according to the Sunday Post. The country is set to hold the 2008 central and southern African eight nations' Under-17 cricket tournament and the Africa Cricket Cup.

Saidi Malama, the Zambia cricket development manager, said they will be searching for talent ahead of the U-17 event. "We have a provisional team in place but we will also go out in schools across the country to recruit Under-17 players who will play in this tournament."