NCF Invitational 2026
The NCF Invitational 2026, the fifth edition of this tournament, sees five teams competing for the Patricia Kambarami Cup: Nigeria, Rwanda, Ghana, Zimbabwe U19 and South Africa U19.
This tournament is a top initiative from the Nigeria Cricket Federation and they’re to be congratulated for their ongoing support and promotion of women’s cricket.
A Round Robin tournament with semi finals and final late March.
Note: games involving the U19 teams do not have have ICC status so do not count towards rankings or player stats. All games between the other teams do.
Rwanda
This is one of the stronger teams on show and a quick look over the playing roster shows no surprises. A team that is pushing to get into the top 20 ranked teams, Rwanda has won this tournament before.
Key players to look out for: enigmatic skipper Marie Diane Bimenyimana, an allrounder and first slip specialist. Henriette Ishimwe, another allrounder and closing in on being the leading wicket taker in T20 Internationals – currently 140. Gisele Ishimwe (no relation) is a gun batter with two T20 International centuries. Watch for this fast bowling allrounder and hard hitting batter: Belise Murekatete.
Coach Leonard Nhamburo has a keen eye for fitness and fielding. This will be the best fielding unit in the tournament.
Ghana
Ghana has not played international cricket since they played in this tournament in 2022/23 so this will be an uphill battle for the team. It is just great to them back – they’ve suffered all sorts of setbacks and worst of all, injury to their inspirational skipper, Rhyda Amanfo Ofori who unfortunately won’t be on tour.
Nigeria
Nigeria, the “Female Yellow Greens” are a very good unit. Players to watch: Salome Sunday is a hard hitting batter who will punish anything short, particularly outside off. Skipper Lucky Piety is one player who threatens to be the best on show for the tournament.
Keep an eye on Lillian Udeh who is probably the fastest bowler here and her much improved batting could set the tournament alight.
Good fielding unit, one of the favourites to take out the trophy.
Zimbabwe U19
Not much is known about the Zimbabwe U19 team, the “Baby Chevrons”. Note that former U19 players Kelis Ndhlovu and Beloved Biza are now playing in the senior team so hopefully we’ll see some similar quality coming through. Beloved is the skipper of this team and likely to leave her mark with both bat and ball.
South Africa U19
The great unknown! Skippered by allrounder, Mieke van Voorst, this team is a glimpse into the future for the stars of tomorrow for South Africa.
