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U19 CWC in Bangladesh. How all the qualifiers got there.
ICC Press Release ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup Bangladesh 2004
ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup Bangladesh 2004 ; how they qualified Six of the sixteen teams participating in the ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup Bangladesh 2004 had to pass through regional qualifiers to reach the finals. Uganda created the biggest surprise in the qualifying stages by beating Kenya in the semi-final of the Africa / East Asia-Pacific regional tournament. Though Uganda went on to lose to Papua New Guinea in the final, the victory over Kenya was enough to secure one of two qualifying places from the Africa / East Asia-Pacific regions. Uganda will be the only team making its debut in the ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup in Bangladesh later this month while Papua New Guinea will be participating in the tournament for the third time. In Europe, Ireland won through to the finals after missing out in 2002. Scotland claimed the second qualifying place, narrowly squeezing out Denmark and Holland on net run rate. Both sides have featured in the ICC U/19 CWC on two previous occasions. Canada and Nepal won the regional qualifiers in the Americas and Asia. Canada's last and only appearance in the finals was in New Zealand in 2002. This will be Nepals third consecutive visit to the competition. The other ten participating nations are the ICCs Full Member countries ; Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies and South Africa.
The fifth ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup will take place from 15 February to 5 March at eight venues throughout Bangladesh. The Opening Ceremony will be in Dhaka on 10 February. Details of regional qualifying tournaments: Africa / East Asia-Pacific Region Winner: Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea beat Uganda by 53 runs to win the final of the Africa/EAP Regional qualifier. It was the only unbeaten team in the tournament, topping Group A containing Uganda, Zambia and Nigeria before defeating hosts Namibia in the semi-final. Kenya won all its matches in Group B against Namibia, Fiji and Tanzania but lost out to Uganda by four wickets in the crucial semi-final. Americas Region Winner: Canada Canada, Argentina, Bermuda, Cayman Islands and USA contested the Americas qualifier on a round-robin basis with the host country prevailing. Canada won all four of its matches, with the Cayman Islands second. There is hope for the future for Bermuda, which finished third with a squad containing four 15 year-olds, and Argentina, which failed to win a match but can count on 10 of their 14-man squad being available at the next U/19 qualifying tournament. Asia Region Winner: Nepal Nepal beat the monsoon showers as well as Malaysia, to record a comfortable 30-run win in a rain-reduced 25-over final. After topping Pool A containing Qatar, UAE, Singapore and Maldives, Nepal beat Kuwait in the semi-final. Malaysia had an unbeaten path to the final, winning Pool B matches against Kuwait, Oman, Hong Kong and Thailand and defeating Qatar in the semi-final. Europe Region Winner: Ireland Ireland won the European U/19 tournament with a convincing five-wicket victory over Scotland, but the Scots also qualified by virtue of a better net run rate after finishing level on points with Denmark and host country Holland. Germany took fifth place with a six-wicket victory over Italy, while Gibraltar avoided the wooden spoon by securing a narrow win over France.
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