Sports
Nigeria Listed For ICC Events In 2021
The International Cricket Council, the umbrella body for the sport has confirmed Nigeria in two of the body’s major activities in 2021 including Nigeria hosting one of them.
Head Coach, Rivers State Cricket Association, Tonye Timinadi disclosed this yesterday, in an interview with Tidesports in Port Harcourt.
According to him, Nigeria was listed as one of the key nations pencilled to vie for space for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 to be hosted in South Africa.
Nigeria women’s team, currently ranked 41st on the MRF Tyres ICC Women’s T20I Team Rankings has been drawn alongside; Botswana, Cameroon, Namibia, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe in one of the qualifiers to be hosted by Botswana and scheduled for October 2021.
Coach Tonye Timinadi who is also the National Development Manager for the Southern Region noted that a spot for the finals of the ICC Women’s World Cup would be up for grabs from the Botswana centre.
The other event that Nigeria was listed for on the ICC’s calendar is the qualifier for the Under-19 World Cup in 2022.
Nigeria would be hosting the final qualifying round for Africa in Abuja along with Namibia and Uganda. A fourth team for the final rounds would emerge from the first stage of the qualifier involving Botswana, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda and Sierra Leone.
The first stage of the qualifying series would be hosted by Botswana in June before the last series that would be staged by Nigeria later in September. Nigeria had qualified for her first ICC World Cup through the Under-19’s after 105 of documented Cricket history in Nigeria.
He said that they the campaign in Nigeria for the U-19 World Cup ticket in September 2021 will be an opportunity to keep the country in the global spotlight after the heroics from the maiden qualification.
President of the Federation, Professor Yahaya Ukwenya has said Nigeria is well aware of the developments and would soon make public the training agenda of the two teams that will be doing these campaigns.
“We have a plan we are working with and we believe the input of our new Head Coach will add to the quality and especially execution. These two ICC events are very important to our developmental plans,” he added.
World Cup winner, Asanka Gurusinha was unveiled by the Nigeria Cricket Federation as the country’s new head coach last week in Abuja, and his contribution is supposed to raise the chances of Nigeria at these international engagements.
Sports
CHELSEA FANS GIVE ENZO MIXED RECEPTION
Enzo Fernandez was booed by some supporters on the day when Morgan Rogers scored on his first appearance for Chelsea in a 3-1 win against Real Sociedad.
Joao Pedro also continued his fine pre-season form with a double as manager Xabi Alonso offered a glimpse of what could be his blueprint for the season.
But the action was overshadowed by the reaction to Fernandez’s second-half appearance, less than 24 hours after Chelsea’s self-imposed transfer deadline had passed.
Fernandez had been keen to join Real Madrid earlier this summer before the Spanish club ended their interest in the Argentine.
His representatives later held talks with Manchester City, but no offer was made to meet Chelsea‘s £120m valuation before Friday’s deadline.
Fernandez was booed by some early arrivals at Stamford Bridge when his name was read out 45 minutes before kick-off.
There were then audible boos when Fernandez came on in the 62nd minute.
Chelsea supporters appeared divided, with others responding by chanting his name.
Yet, it was a signal of Alonso and Chelsea‘s backing that when Reece James left the field he passed his long-time vice-captain the armband as usual.
Each touch of the ball was greeted by a mixture of boos and cheers.
It followed attempts by some supporters to move on from a saga that appears to have ended with Chelsea now expecting to keep one of their best players.
Others, however, remain unhappy with his perceived disloyalty, having come out publicly about his desire to move to Madrid, with his agent Javier Pastore also claiming he is underpaid.
It will be interesting to see how supporters of the Premier League’s other 19 clubs react to Fernandez, given his celebrations and social media jibes after Argentina beat England in a World Cup semi-final in July.
That will remain an issue whether he remains at Chelsea or Manchester City elect to revive their interest and attempt to reunite him with his former manager Enzo Maresca before deadline day on 1 September.
It took Rogers only seven minutes to score his first goal in a Chelsea shirt as he reacted quickest after Alex Remiro saved Joao Pedro’s initial header.
The £117m club record signing from Aston Villa initially looked sharp and linked well with Cole Palmer and Pedro in Chelsea‘s front three.
Within 10 minutes of his debut, supporters were already chanting his name.
However, it was understandable that Rogers faded as the match wore on, given he had trained for less than a week since returning from holiday before his 62-minute outing.
Beyond Rogers, Joao Pedro has been the star of Chelsea‘s pre-season.
In this outing he headed Chelsea back in front in the 47th minute before adding a side-footed finish 30 minutes later to seal victory after Sociedad had equalised just before half-time through Jon Mikel Aramburu’s volley.
Chelsea lost control towards the end of the first half and looked vulnerable, but they were much improved after the break.
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