Between October 4th and 15th, Nigerian Cricket Federation, will play host to the first edition of West African Trophy, which is scheduled to kick-off at the Tafawa Balewa Square Oval in Lagos
Ghana, Sierra Leone and Rwanda, are the other teams that would be represented in the ten-days event.
Uyi Akpata, President of the Federation, has said that the event is a result of cementing of new partnerships with new sponsors and will create platforms for the exposure of the national team to more international engagement which is key to their development.
“This event is the first in its series, and we are glad to put it together, along with some partners, especially Dafabet. Again, it will form part of events that will prep the National Men’s Cricket team “The Yellow-Greens” ahead of other international engagements later in the year.” He said.
Two matches will be played daily from the opening day till the final day.
“Sierra Leone and Ghana are our rivals on the West African corridor, and Rwanda’s profile has been on the rise as well. So, it will be a great chance to test the might of the Nigerian team, which has also been beefed-up of late with the promotion of former U19 players.”
Nigeria’s team would be led by Kenyan Steve Tikolo as chief coach while Slyvester Okpe is the captain.
The opening match will see Nigeria taking on Rwanda by 9am on Wednesday at the TBS Oval while Ghana will take on Sierra Leone later in the day.
General Manager of the Federation, Emeka Igwilo, said that the event also draws on the growing capacity of the Federation to host international facility, both in facility and personnels.
According to him: “Amidst all these are the up skilling of our staffs and development of special relationship across industries for event management and all the accoutrements necessary for international event hosting. This, follows naturally from the uptick we have been making in games development across the country as our yearly recruitment goals that has crossed 250, 000 per year now.”
Nigeria has six turf wickets that can host international cricket matches now, from zero in just four years ago. The International Cricket Council, ICC, has also made a note of Nigeria, as one of the countries to give special attention to, to help sustain the gains it has made in recent years.
