Nigeria’s Cricket Team Chasing World Cup Ticket in Rwanda

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.

President of the Nigerian Cricket Federation (NCF), Uyi Akpata, said that the team’s preparations for this event has been good and expects nothing but a good fight with the other competitors, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.

“We have had the team training together for weeks and had two major tournament exposures in Uganda and the bilateral series at home to hone them better for this event. We are very pleased with the way the team is turning out and equally hope for the best outing when we file out in Kigali from Wednesday,” he said.

Nigeria was the first team to arrive in Kigali for the event, a decision which the Yellow-Green Head Coach, Asanka Gurusinha, said was to enable the team settle ahead of the busy qualifying schedule.

“This qualifiers’ schedule is a tough one and I think our team is very ready for the on-field battle. At each of the stage of our preparation we have brought in new learnings that have improved the quality of the team. I think we have a far better team going for this event now, and we are optimistic of a good outing” he added.

Gurusinha, is a Sri Lankan World Cup winning player turned coach hired by Nigeria late last year as National Coach and High Development Manager.

The Nigeria’s Yellow-Green will square up against Tanzania and Uganda on the opening day, Wednesday November 17 at the Gahanga International Cricket Stadium in Kigali.

The team will return with another double header against Kenya and Uganda at the IPRC Cricket Ground on Thursday. All teams would go on break on Friday before hostilities resumed for the final round on Saturday November 20, where Kenya and Tanzania will again lined up at the IPRC grounds in Kigali.

Gurusinha confirmed that Slyvester Okpe would be making his debut as Nigeria’s national team captain. Okpe replaced Joshua Ayanaike.

Akpata who took over in September as NCF president, is hoping to bolster cricket in the country through developmental agenda.