Over 400 students from public and private schools in Lagos State and other stakeholders were on hand to welcome the International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s Cricket World Cup Trophy Tour to Lagos.

Cricket Oval of the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos, was filled to the brim as cricket fans besieged the venue of the trophy presentation.

The event had in attendance ICC bigwigs from Africa and Nigeria, including William Glenwright, ICC Development Manager and Rohet Roda, Senior Manager, ICC Member Services.

Others are: Patricia Kambarau, ICC Africa Development Manager, Eddy Wamba, Trophy Tour Manager, Uyi Akpata, president, Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF) and Amit Sharma, Managing Director, Nissan Nigeria.

Speaking on the ICC Trophy Tour to Nigeria, Glenwright Expressed that the trophy tour was part of the developmental programmes of the world body to member associations.

“This is part of the programmes to encourage cricket in our member associations. I am happy to be back here in Nigeria again for the second time.

“We want to help Nigeria develop more in the game of cricket, we have seen many of the Nigeria’s developmental programmes which we will like other member associations to copy.

“We have also seen great ambitious players from Nigeria that are doing well, especially the desire to play in the ICC World Cup for male and female.

“Playing in the World Cup involves a lot of ambition and in Nigeria we have already seen the urge, maybe in the next world cup it will happen,” he said.

Akpata, in his reaction, said the feeling of having the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in Nigeria was overwhelming.

“I am super excited that we are having the trophy tour in Nigeria. At this strategic level, ICC is looking for a way to promote the game of cricket globally.

“It is a significant global objective that also captures Nigeria, and Nigeria has been identified as one of those countries where the initiative is yielding results.

“We are identified by the ICC alongside other three African countries for the tour, to see what we have done in the past and also see our developmental plan.

“Also in the course of the week, we will be having discussions with some other countries like South Africa, how they can support us in terms of player placements,” he said.

Akpata added that the developmental project of the federation might not be quick fix, but was more of a progressive developmental plan.

“We will start from U-13, U-15, U-19 and maybe in the next year, we will see ourselves playing in the T20 competition. It is just for us to work out ways to the pathway on time.

“Our next target is to have a project of 500,000 students for grassroots development; we want to upgrade from our previous target of 4,000 students which we have achieved.”

NAN.

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