While most of us were watching the youthful Yellow Greens of the Nigerian side ride roughshod over the Patriots of Sierra Leone with their 5-1 Lampooning of their visitors, the Nigerian handlers were growing grey hairs.
The victory against Sierra Leone wasn’t in any way a measure of the might they intended to approach Kigali’s qualifiers with, and the incessant struggles with top-order batsmen compounded the yo-yo form of the bowlers until Peter Aho came to the rescue.
Truth, the Tri-Nation Series in Uganda earlier, had exposed the team enough to be able to have the bilateral as a test drive for the new fixes they had introduced.
The shock runaway win by the visitors (whom they later routed), condemned the whole pack to be rejigged irrespective of how the team fared after the series.
Hence, upon the approval of the management the Captain, Joshua Ayannaike has voluntarily stepped down, and Slyvester Okpe, the 2019 under-19 Captain has assumed leadership of the team.
Another development of note is the re-invitation of former captain, Ademola Onikoyi, who is having his third invite under Coach Asanka Gurusinha, but this time as a final member of the Qualifying squad who will proceed on the last phase of training in Lagos.
Onikoyi’s experience has become required and since Ayannaike too has transferred the captain’s burden, to free up himself for batting responsibilities, the new mix will enrich options available to Okpe and the Head Coach (Asanka) in their strategic planning for matches.
Meanwhile, Odion Isesele, Segun Ogundipe, and Elijah Oleye have had to be rested from the final 14 member squad.
The new team now includes: Ashmith Shrestha, Segun Olayinka, Samuel Mba, Sesan Adedeji, Gim Daniel, Onikoyi Ademola, Joshua Ayannaike, Isaac Okpe, Sylvester Okpe (captain), Peter Aho, Chima Akachukwu, Rasheed Abolarin, Ridwan Kareem, Prosper Useni
The last phase of the training for the Yellow-Greens will commence in a few days at the Unilag Oval before they proceed to Kigali for the event in mid-November.