Mozambique became an affiliate member of the International Cricket Council in 2003 and then an associate member in 2017 when the affiliate status was scrapped.[6]
50 over cricket
2003
Their international debut came the following year, when they played in the African Affiliates championship which was the first stage of qualifying for the 2007 Cricket World Cup. They would finish in 6th place after defeating only Rwanda.[7]
2006
Mozambique, as a member of the African Cricket Association, competes in the World Cricket League Africa Region which is a 50 over competition for African countries that aren't full member of the ICC. For this edition, they competed in the third division as they drawn to meet Sierra Leone, Morocco and Rwanda. In the opening match against Sierra Leone, they scored a six wicket win after they bowled out the opposition for only 197.[8] In return, Kaleem Shah top scored with 55 to give the team their first up victory.[8] Kaleem Shah scored the first century of the tournament in the next game against Morocco[9] to get the team to 275 from 50 overs. Morocco in return could only muster up a score of 196 with Shah being the best bowler.[9] The final group game saw Mozambique win the match against Rwanda by 112 runs to finish on top of pool 2.[10] In the semi-final stage, they took on Ghana and Zainul Patel dominated the bowling with 4 wickets to help in getting the team through to the final.[11] In the final game of the tournament, top scorer Kaleem Shah top scored in the final with him scoring 77 in the 89 run victory to move Mozambique to the next division.[12]
Division Two was held in Tanzania with five teams competing for a spot in Division 1. For Mozambique, they had to compete against Botswana, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zambia.[citation needed]
2018-Present
In April 2018, the ICC decided to grant full Twenty20 International (T20I) status to all its members. Therefore, all Twenty20 matches played between Mozambique and other ICC members since 1 January 2019 have been full T20I matches.[13]
Mozambique played their first T20I on 6 November 2019, against Malawi, during the 2019 T20 Kwacha Cup; they lost by three wickets with two balls left.[citation needed]