It’s been over a week since we got back home from the regional T20 World Cup Qualifiers in Kigali, Rwanda, where The Cranes of Uganda picked up the sole ticket on offer. It was a good tournament all around. Well organized by the RCA, keenly contested games, amazing pitches, and great weather for the most part. It was great entertainment for the neutrals…but we are not neutrals. Nigeria fans trooped into Kigali in their numbers to support the Yellow Greens....
The new season of Edo Cricket Leagues flagged off last Saturday, November 27, 2021, at one of the few turf wickets in the country, with a number of the national team players listed for action for the 10-week play. Chairman of Edo State Cricket Association, who doubles as the President of the Nigeria Cricket Federation, Uyi Akpata, says this season has more teams competing than the previous year due to the growth the game has witnessed in the state....
Nigeria’s opening bowler Rasheed Abolarin has been ruled out of the Regional Final ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier billed for Rwanda from Wednesday, November 17 to Sunday, November 2021 due to a knee injury. The Lagos Asians Cricket Club player picked up a knee injury which has ruled him out of the tournament and his position is now taken by left-arm bowler Taiwo Mohammed, who is making a return to the team. According to National Coach and High ...
The Nigeria National Senior Men’s team, the Yellow-Green will this week begin a four-day six-match session for the ticket to represent the continent at the next T20 World Cup in Australia in 2022. Uyi Akpata, President of the Federation said that the team preparations for this event have been in top order and he expects nothing but a fight along with the other competitors, Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya. “We have had the team training together for weeks and had...
Growing up as a young boy in Lagos, I was lucky to have been admitted into a cricket-playing secondary school. One of the highlights of the summer holidays for me was the Holiday Coaching Clinic. My mates and I looked forward to it with gusto. Over a one-month period, we would work with some of the most talented young coaches in Lagos, make new friends (and rivals) from other schools, and by the end of it, be better cricketers...
As it is with a duck on the surface of the water, it has been somewhat calm and quiet around the cricket circle across the country. But beneath the surface of the water, there has been rigorous paddling in some quarters. Starting with the most recent, let me bring you a few of the happenings in our world. Just yesterday, the 3rd day of July, the facility manager (Lagos Office) for the Nigeria Cricket Federation, Richson Tetteh, walked down the aisle...
In the last two months, there have been many activities in Lagos geared towards resurrecting grassroots cricket in the state. I understand that a Lagos State Cricket Stakeholder Forum has been set up to organize funding and structure for the development of the game in the state at the grassroots level. Under normal circumstances, this would be a laudable effort but you have to be close to the politics of Nigerian cricket to ask why this is coming up now....
It's been a minute. I know. It has not been for nothing. The past few weeks have witnessed plenty of cricket action across the nation. And I just wanted you to soak it all in without my pesky musings. Even if you have not been attentive, you would have come across a cricket post from all that has been happening especially in Edo State. The ancient city of Benin has been host to a host of talents (haha...see what I did there?), recognized and upcoming....
The first Female Cricket League in the country; The South-South Female League would be rounding off this weekend, with Super-Four playoff to crown the winner of the inaugural season in Benin-City, Edo State. Chairman of the Edo State Cricket Association and member representing the South-South Zone on the board of Nigeria Cricket Federation, Mr. Uyi Akpata said, “This event is a landmark event for us and the country. In fact, it is ...
Growing up as a teenager, in a football dominant society like Nigeria, the choice to go with cricket will naturally meet with some oppositions. For Chilemanya Destiny, he seemed to have walked into the game from the right side of fortune; his choice didn't meet much hostility, except for the threat of banning him from the game when he started coming home late from the cricket pitch. "My mum was not pleased that I came in late from practice, and she threatened to stop...
Today, Nigeria Cricket seems more like the center of (development) attraction on the continent. Not that things have been excellent, but in a post-covid era, where fear has shut shown most sporting centers, a little act of bravery can make one a super-hero. The story of the Nigeria Cricket Federation stepping up to give the game a push when many of her peers are holding back (albeit, understandably) has made a poster child of her. With some...
The 2nd edition of the National Under 17 Cricket Championship sponsored by PwC ended on Sunday February 7, 2021, with the South South team emerging the winner. Having recorded 93 runs in a tight 40 over finals match, the North-West team seemed set for a defence of the title they won last year at Abuja until the second innings when the bowling firepower of the South-South team came to the fore....
South-South teenage sensation Lucky Piety was the center of the National Finals of the Girls Under-17 Cricket Championship after leading her team to victory in the national event at the Edo Boys High School Cricket Oval on Sunday, January 31st, 2021. Rising from her record-breaking century, at the opening game against South West on Wednesday where Piety became the first Nigerian to achieve such feat in a T-20 match, she gave a...
Over the last couple few weeks, there has been a wave of cricketing excitement coursing through all the regions of the country. Boys and girls from all corners coming together to provide us with a carnival of cricket and camaraderie and it has been fantastic to watch. It is clear that the leadership of the NCF and her partner, PwC Nigeria, understand the importance of investing in the next generation as evidenced by the near-flawless execution of...
The Head Coach and High-Performance Manager of Cricket in Nigeria, Asanka Gurusinha who has been following the on-going Regional finals of the PwC National U-17 Cricket Championship has described the event as very important for the country's cricket development pathway."Events are important for Nigeria's grassroots development, and I have followed this very event and must say I am impressed at the level of coordination by the ...
More than 360 players would be fielded this weekend when the boys qualifier of the on-going PwC National U-17 Cricket Championship and the Nigeria Cricket Federation has informed that the entry is record entry on its own.Endurance Ofem, a former national male team captain, Chairman Development and Tournament Committee of the Federation who is overseeing the event informed that his team expects a very competitive...
President of Nigeria Cricket Federation Professor Yahaya Ukwenya has said the entry of close to 300 female Cricketers from 21 states last weekend for the on-going PwC National Under-17 Cricket Championship bodes well for the Country as a whole. According to him, "The effort that has been invested at the state level to raise these players to the competitive stage will be taken to a higher level at the national level...
The Under 17 Cricket Club now top the table at the end of week two at the Edo State Cricket League when they dismissed league favourites UNIBEN CC with three wickets on Sunday afternoon at the Edo College Turfs. The match was week two in the League and easily was in favour of the University team who had opened their first game in the league with 183runs...
Dear cricketers, cricket lovers and lovers of cricketers, we are glad that you are here. 2020 has been much like facing all of the best spinners in the world on a day 5 pitch in the subcontinent with no wickets in hand. We made it through. We won!! And that is no mean feat. Congratulations to us all...
The International Cricket Council, the umbrella body for the sport has confirmed Nigeria in two of the body's major activities in 2021 including Nigeria hosting one of them. In a communication sent out over the weekend, Nigeria was listed as one of the key nations penciled to vie for space for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 to be hosted in South Africa. Nigeria women's team, currently ranked 41st on the...
While it may be too early to start raining applause on the four-year works of the present Cricket administration, it may worth the while to give thumbs-up for investment on the different ovals across the country. Though the many turfs that dot the country are not the the "81m category" ( for the initiated only), there has apparently ...
Like the game itself, taking scores of a cricket game requires skill, preparation and a great bit of concentration. As important as it is, it is not surprising that it is often a struggle to find people who are content to sit for an entire day with their noses in a book, taking record of...
Name - Taiwo Mohammed, Date of Birth - 3rd June, Nickname - Papa, Club - Ibeju Lekki CC, Role - Bowler. In April of 2018, at the ICC Wt20 Africa A Qualifier in Lagos, Nigeria unearthed a gem. A fresh-faced, left-arm seamer took the entire subcontinent by storm. His name- Mohammed Taiwo Blessed with natural...
They say "get you a man that can do both". From Flintoff to Stokes, Symonds and Kallis, all-rounders remain the glue that holds many a lineup together and, Vincent Adewoye looks set to be one of Nigeria's all-time great all-rounders. An absolute dynamite of a player who can hold his own either as a bowler...
Rapid development, especially in a sport like cricket is heavily dependent on the availability of facilities. If there is one thing that cricketers all over Nigeria agree on, it is that our chances of progressing as a cricketing nation has been hampered by the lack of access to cricket pitches that meet international standards. Promises...