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Over 140 players drawn from zonal teams and their officials are ready for the 2024 National Women’s Cricket Championship, the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF) has said.
The NCF, yesterday, said that it has concluded arrangements for the championship slated for the MK Abiola Stadium, Abuja from October 20 to 27. NCF Secretary General, Sanni Mohammed, at the weekend, said that the event is the culmination of the zonal elimination that had gone on at different cricket clusters across the nation.
He said: “This is the national finals for the women’s focused developmental initiates that had gone on from the first quarter of the year. It is just interesting that it is coming at this period that we have just qualified for the ICC Women’s U19 World Cup in Malaysia.”
The players, drawn from the zonal finals held in Lagos, Ekiti, Kogi, Kaduna, Gombe, Edo, Akwa Ibom, and Anambra states, will join top cricket officials across the nation for the championship.
“We are also using this event to hone the game’s administrative skills, including umpiring, scoring, and growing our coaching and live broadcasting capacities,” he added.
He said that the rate of growth and the success being achieved through developmental efforts have also raised the potential for the game of cricket by providing part-time jobs, and career paths for the youths.
Playing at the twin cricket ovals of the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja, which will also host the Group C of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Africa Sub-regional qualifier in November, will give the NCF opportunity to test the readiness of the facility, he said, adding: “The Federation’s staff and cricket officials will be working at the Women’s Championship with the mind to prime ourselves for the International Cricket Council’s sub-regional World Cup qualifier in about a month.”