By Joel Ajayi

Without an iota of doubt, or amplifying, in the last few years, the game of Cricket in the country has taken the path of history, Cricket is not new in the country, it was one of the first internationally recognized sports in the most populous black Nation.

According to history, Cricket was introduced into and first played in Nigeria by British colonial administrators in the 19th century as the first international cricket match involving Nigeria was against the Gold Coast (now Ghana) in 1904.

Excitingly, Cricket is now the game in which Nigeria has the highest ranking presently. Nigeria has risen to 25th in the world rankings for female cricket, from 42nd, while the men’s team has climbed to 28th, also from 48th

Since 2020, Nigeria started breaking new grounds in the game of Cricket and is now one of the countries feared for its prowess in the game after beating hands down Zimbabwe U19 Women’s team, just on  Monday, thereby making history by beating a test-playing nation Zimbabwe by one wicket at the Ongoing Africa U19 World Cup Qualifiers in Rwanda.

The victory will be the first time the women’s cricket team will beat any of the International Cricket Council (ICC) 10 test-playing nations, which are usually regarded as the elite cricket-playing nations.

Not only that, facilities that were a serious issue are not a thing of the past, as the Nigeria Cricket Federation’s effort is yielding  impressive results.

Currently, Nigeria can boast of beautiful ovals, starting from the beautiful twin Oval in Nigeria’s capital city, in the North central region of the country.

Also, with Tafawa Balewa Square Cricket Oval in Lagos  in the Southwest.

In the South-south part of the country,  Iyoba College and the Edo Boys High School High-Performance Center in Benin, Edo State were put in better perspective to enable the game to be played while Akwa Ibom Oval is almost ready

In the North West Kaduna Oval is nearly ready courtesy of the Kaduna State government.

While some sports are battling with age cheats, the NCF have had it all figured out by putting up a clear-cut mechanism at developmental stages.

No wonder today, 90% of Nigerian players are the product of grassroots drive through the national championship, compared to some sports federations with the syndrome of foreign players.

Today, coaches are swelling up; from about  just 10 to  over 41 coaches doing well for the country.

Also, close to 50 curators are on the payroll of the federation.

However, the federation under the leadership of Uyi Akpata, is not planning to relax its efforts in making cricket the most popular sport in the country as he said efforts are being made to stage more competitions for the growth of the game.

As at today, Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF) is set to launch its largest-ever Super Cricket Festival, bringing together between 600 to 1,000 female secondary school students at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja, this October.

Akpata revealed this on Tuesday in Abuja during a media briefing with stakeholders. He attributed the unprecedented growth and transformation of cricket over the past four years to a strong passion for the development of the sport across the country. He emphasized that the federation is committed to ensuring cricket reaches every corner of Nigeria.

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