Sierra Leone

The history of cricket in Sierra Leone dates back to the Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate 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. 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 and Ghana also sending teams. Starting in 1991, the Sierra Leone Civil War 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 which became a member of the ICC in 1976 and fielded the West Africa cricket team, before being dissolved in 2003. The Cricket Sierra Leone 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 of the World Cricket League, where they showed major improvement, this time finishing as runners-up to Mozambique, and only just missing out on promotion to Division Two.

Sierra Leone gained T20I status in 2019 and played their first match against Nigeria in 2021, securing a narrow win.

In 2021 Sierra Leone was among five teams excluded from the ICC T20I Championship for failing to play enough fixtures in the relevant period, an effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.