West Africa Ivory Coast, and a succession of military coups in Ghana and Burkina Faso. Since the end of colonialism, the region has been the stage for some brutal conflicts, including: The Economic Community of West African States, established in May 1975, has defined the region of West Africa since 1999 as including the following 15 states: Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Western Africa includes the preceding states with the addition of Mauritania (which withdrew from ECOWAS in 1999), comprising an area of approximately 6.1 million square km. The UN region also includes the island of Saint Helena, a British overseas
Ghana national cricket team Ghana national cricket team The Ghana national cricket team represents the Republic of Ghana in international cricket. It is an associate member of the International Cricket Council, which it joined as an affiliate member in 2002, and mainly plays matches in ICC Africa tournaments. Ghana Cricket Association promotes the sport in the country. A team representing the British Gold Coast played its first recorded match in 1904, and international matches from 1907. Known as Ghana after independence in 1957, until recent times the majority of the team's matches came against other West African teams, and occasionally against touring English teams.