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Nigeria Benefits From ICC’s New Cricket Dev. Plans

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Nigeria is to benefit from the new global cricket development plans announced by the International Cricket Council (ICC) after its Executive Board meeting in Jakarta.

The ICC said it would establish an expanded global qualification system for its World Twenty20 tournament and announced it would fund specific strategic projects with 2 million dollars

Nigeria became an Associate member of the ICC in 2002 and is currently playing in the Pepsi ICC World Division Six League.

An ICC statement, made available to newsmen in Lagos, said ICC Associate and Affiliate Members would now find it easy to qualify for the Twenty20 competitions.

“A new and expanded global qualification system will be established to give the ICC Associate and Affiliate Members a distinct pathway towards the ICC World Twenty20.

“The qualification tournament, which has previously involved six or eight teams, will be expanded to a 16-team tournament in early 2012.

“This is to give those sides the chance to represent their countries at the prestigious ICC World Twenty20 2012 in Sri Lanka,’’ the statement said.

It said the decisions were reached at the ICC executive meeting in Jakarta on Thursday.

It also said that the ICC Development Committee had designed the new-look tournament to comprise the six which currently enjoyed ODI/T20I status plus 10 qualifiers from regional Twenty20 events.

“The exact details of the regional qualification network will be announced in due course but the intention is to give all 94 Associate and Affiliate Members a clear pathway towards the finals.”

In another development, the committee has pledged 2 million dollars towards major cricket facilities developments for targeted Associates and Affiliates, in partnership with Members and third-parties.

The members eligible to apply, under a system to be finalised soon will include each of the top six-ranked Associates/Affiliates, China and U.S.

Others are a member nominated by each of the Africa, East Asia-Pacific and Europe regions together with any Associate or Affiliate scheduled to host certain ICC events, it said.

The statement issued from ICC headquarters in Dubai, quoted ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat as saying that “cricket development around the world has never been stronger”.

“These are two extremely exciting, strategic and encouraging developments for the future of our great sport.

“They represent a clear sign of our ongoing commitment to growing the game beyond its traditional boundaries and ensuring that each of our members has the opportunity to develop.

“Cricket has never been stronger,” the statement said.

It said that ICC now had three viable formats of the game at international level and cricket had continued to grow in popularity in almost every corner of the globe.

“These initiatives are steps along the path towards continued sustainable growth.

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Bundesliga: Kane Scores Hat-Trick As Bayern End Winless Streak

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England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.

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Dosu Survives Ghastly Accident, Again

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Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.

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Sports Development Going Down In Nigeria – Ex-International

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Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.

Kiadum Edookor

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