Sports
Edo Wins National Men’s Cricket Championship
Team Edo on Wednesday overwhelmed Team Kaduna with 57 runs to emerge champions of the National Men’s Cricket Championship in Benin City.
Peter Aho, the captain of Team Edo, attributed their victory to discipline and huge support from the Edo State Cricket Association.
“We give the glory to God and we thank all our mentors and the leadership of the Edo State Cricket Association, who have sacrificed and encouraged the team to this height.
“We dedicate this victory to them,” the member of the national Under-19 Cricket World Cup team in South Africa in 2020 said.
President of the Nigeria Cricket Federation, Yahaya Ukwenya, while speaking on the competition said the event had served its purpose.
Ukwenya said the opportunity to have more players drawn into the pool to be camped for the national assignments the country would be involved in later in the year, was very key.
“We set out to, among other things, use this event as a platform for the best players in the country to showcase their skills.
“The national coach, Asanka Gurusinha, watched every match of this encounter with a team of selectors.
“Soon our national camp will open for the assignments ahead with some new players invited based on their performance here,” he said.
Mustapha Yussuff of Team Lagos was named the bowler of the series for bowling 16 wickets in four matches.
Selim Salau and Isaac Okpe from Edo and Kaduna state were adjudged the Fielder and Batsman of the event, respectively.
Sylvester Okpe, the captain of Team Kaduna, was named the Most Valuable Player of the Championship.
Kofi Sagoe, the newly re-appointed Chairman of Lagos State Cricket Association, who was one of the selectors at the event, said the event has put some players under the spotlight.
Sagoe said the development would enrich the base of the national team.
He said:”I think we should commend the work done by the Federation for constantly pushing the boundaries for developmental initiatives.
“We have some learnings and have seen some more promising talents that should be mentored and groomed. This, I think, our national coach is equipped to bring about in them.
“As for Lagos, our team was adjudged third, based on Net Run Rate, since there was no third-place match.
“They are back in Lagos and had began technical analysis of our performance at this event, including some fixes that we hope will help us place better at the upcoming National Sports Festival.”
Tideports source reports that eight states —- Lagos, Edo, Kwara, Anambra, Kaduna, Ebonyi, Rivers and Oyo —-participated in the championship which began on March 22.
Iwobi spoke to Tidesports source ahead of Nigeria’s crunch playoff semi-final against Gabon on Thursday, November 13, in Rabat, Morocco.
The 28-year-old was reacting to Nigeria’s shaky World Cup qualifying campaign that saw the Eagles finish second in Group C behind South Africa’s Bafana Bafana.
“We’ve managed to rescue ourselves from the dead,” Iwobi told Tidesports source.
We know we have the players and the abilities to compete against any other country in the world.”
The Fulham star pointed to Nigeria’s star power, highlighting African Footballer of the Year winners Ademola Lookman and Victor Osimhen as proof of the squad’s quality.
“We have last year’s African best player (Ademola Lookman), the year before that (Victor Osimhen),” he said.
“It’ll be a shame if we don’t make it, but we have a lot of confidence. We just have to prove it to ourselves.”
Nigeria’s path to the United States, Canada and Mexico has been turbulent, with two coaches departing during the early stages of qualifying before Éric Chelle steadied the ship to steer the Super Eagles into November’s CAF playoffs.
Four nations from the continent – Nigeria, Cameroon, DR Congo and Gabon – will vie for a solitary spot to compete in next March’s inter-confederation playoffs, with a view to joining the already nine qualified African nations at the Finals.
It would mark Iwobi’s second appearance at the World Cup Finals and the Super Eagles’ first since the 2018 edition of the competition.
Back then, Iwobi featured in all three games as Nigeria was knocked out in the group stage.
The Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Publisher of the Atlantic Bell Online medium, Mr. Celestine Ogolo has advised sports writers in Nigeria to diversify in sports writing and not to concentrate on football reporting alone.
The Deputy National President of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Mr. Bonny Nyong has expressed commitment to support sports development and move SWAN forward.