NCC To Increase Tennis League’s Prize Money

The Executive Vice-
Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta,  said the commission had planned to increase the prize-money for its sponsored lawn tennis championship.
Danbatta disclosed this in a statement obtained by The Tide source in Lagos at the weekend.
The Tide source gathered that the telecoms regulatory body earmarked N11 million for the maiden edition of the championship which started on May24 and ended on December 5.
The statement said that the first four-winners of this edition of the league went home with N5 million, N3 million, N2 million and N1 million respectively.
It stated that the planned review of the money was to encourage more clubs to participate in the next edition of NCC Lawn Tennis Cup.
According to the statement, it is hoped the increase in the prize will encourage more individuals, corporate bodies and institutions to raise teams to compete.
‘’We also plan to provide other reward schemes for outstanding players in the tournament to encourage them to strive harder in singles and doubles performances.
‘’We sincerely believe that our young men and women are capable of becoming world champions in this game since the journey of a thousand miles begins with a step.
‘’Competitions expose the players and ensure that they practise more and play more.
‘’The NCC Tennis Cup provides players an opportunity to express themselves and prepares them for other competitions, as we have seen in this maiden edition,’’ it said.
It stated that the commission’s objective for the sponsorship of the league was to take tennis to all parts of the country and to locations which had never witnessed standard tennis competitions before.
‘’As a corporate social investment, we have profound understanding that these sports have unifying potentials for Nigerian sports men and women from various parts of the country.
“It is also known that more activities in this sport will bring additional value to the list of sports where Nigerians can excel beyond our shores.
‘’We have witnessed this edition and have seen that a lot of our players have standards, as high as those we have seen in the international circuit.
‘’We were told that no Nigerian has been able to reach the stage achieved by Nduka Odizor because of lack of support and sponsorships,’’ it said.
It would be recalled that Odizor reached the round of 16 at Wimbledon.
The statement added that it was hoped that through NCC’s support, the recognition of the Lagos State Government and other corporate bodies, players would surpass the feat in near future.
Reports say that Team Tombim won the maiden NCC Tennis Cup, after it defeated the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
Tombin got the sum of N5 million, the NSCDC received N3 million, Team Kalotari which came third got N2 million and Team Ogun that came fourth went away with N1 million.