The newly inaugurated board of the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF), has promised to sustain the steady development of cricket in the country. Nigeria is currently ranked 39th in the International Cricket Council (ICC) member-countries.

The latest ranking followed the national team’s performance at the ICC World Seven Cricket League in Guernsey, U.K. in May, where they sought promotion to ICC World Six League.

The national team twice won the North West Africa Cricket Council (NWACC) Championship, a sub-regional competition, since it became an ICC associate member in 2002.

Six countries, Nigeria, Japan, Suriname, Guernsey, Gibraltar and Bahrain, competed for honours at the world league.
Nigeria played six matches, won three and lost three, placing third in its maiden outing in a world competition. However, it could not secure its promotion to World Six in 2010.

The situation leaves the NCF to now make adequate preparations for the 2010 tournament so that its dream of being in the world league will be sustained and the fears of relegation curbed.

The significance of participating in that competition, which will ultimately lead them to playing among countries in the One Day International (ODI), is that it has exposed the players to top class cricket.

It has also shown that the country has not been in the doldrums since gaining her associate membership.

However, officials of NCF, in assessing the team’s performance at the competition, believed that they did well in spite of not securing British visas to travel to London to train for a week ahead of the competition.

The officials said the training would have helped them to train on hard ground that was used for the championship.

The national cricket coach, Ewa Henshaw, said: “They played on concrete ground which we are not used to; if we had been there at the appropriate time, we would have had enough time to acclimatise.

“Although, the team was not able to gain promotion to the World Six League, the event was a good learning experience for them because they have not been playing top class games”.

Henshaw wants the federal government to ensure adequate preparations by the national teams for international competitions.

He argues that all the logistics concerning international tournaments should be provided early to enable athletes and their officials prepare themselves ahead of events.

Such a development, he stresses, will keep them in the right frame of mind and form for optimal performance.

President of NCF, Kwesi Sagoe, also bares his mind on the coveted sport. Sagoe believes that Nigeria’s cricket development has witnessed a steady growth since Nigeria attained associate membership.

According to him, participation in the world league is one of the federation’s vision which has been accomplished.

“I am impressed with our achievements so far and we will continue to build on the structures which elevated us to this height.

“The federation is working to consolidate our grassroots programmes so that cricket will continue to be played in the primary and secondary schools across the country.

“To achieve this, we are seeking sponsors for new programmes and strengthening relationships with the existing ones such as De United Foods Plc., which sponsors the National Indomie Secondary Schools Cricket Competition”, Sagoe adds.

He says there are a number of other state and national competitions sponsored by some corporate organisations like Gurantee Trust Assurance Annual 20-20 Cricket Championship, Stanbic IBTC Cricket Annual Championship and Iris Smart Annual Cricket Clubs Championship (CCC) League.

”With the inauguration of the board of the federation on June 9, 2009, the NCF would pursue its vision of installing new infrastructure for the game where it does not exist and upgrade existing ones nationwide if funds permit, Sagoe explains.

As part of efforts at popularising and improving the standard of the game, he discloses that in the current year the federation plans to commence the laying of a turf wicket at the M.K.O. Abiola Stadium, Abeokuta, Ogun.

Other stadiums to benefit from the gesture include the Ovals at the University of Lagos; Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife; The University of Ibadan; University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

It is also to the credit of the federation under the leadership of its former President, Dr John Abebe, that the Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS) Cricket Oval, Lagos, was wrested from the management of TBS Investment Ltd., as the bedrock for cricket development.

Abebe secured competitions sponsored by his company, Statoil, and the moribund Lagos Primary Schools One Day Clinic, sponsored by telecommunications company, MTN.

His administration also promoted the game in secondary schools by distributing kits donated by Lagos-based AAA Foundation which he founded.

Apart from this, it also strengthened relationship with Howzat Cricket Foundation, Lagos — NGO founded by Nigeria’s foremost cricketers, including Prof. Giwa Osagie —which produced many of the cricketers in the current national team.

Indeed, NCF has grown to a height where it will be difficult for it to be relegated but to progress to an ODI country.

A consolidation of these gains can only be guaranteed if the federation seeks more funding from the private sector to augment government’s dwindling grants and carry out its development programmes