Nigeria’s women’s national cricket team, Women Yellow-Greens, who departed for Rwanda, on Monday for the Seventh Kwibuka Women’s T20 tournament in Kigali, are hopeful of success at the event featuring teams from across the world.
The first batch of the Nigerian delegation, which flew to Kigali from the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos, comprised players, officials and training kits before the arrival of other half of the team on Tuesday.
The event this year is also featuring Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Botswana, Germany, Brazil and hosts, Rwanda.
Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF) President, Uyi Akpata, said the team, which camped at the Cricket High Performance Centre in Benin, Edo State for one-month, would put up a decent show at the event that gets underway today.
“Our team is very prepared and has shown steady rise in their performance over the years. Earlier in the year, they finished second to Rwanda in the maiden NCF Women’s Invitational T20I that we hosted. And as a federation, the event was instituted to help harness the growing potential that we have discovered in our development journey,” he said over the weekend.
Akpata said the game in Nigeria has been on the upswing, adding that women’s interest in the sport has been encouraging for the Federation.
“Given the level of preparation that the players had, I am confident they will put up a good show in Rwanda.”
He said the Nigerian team is only ranked above Botswana of the other competitors, adding that due to the dedication shown by the team and their handlers, they are expected to grind out good results.
Nigeria’s opening match is against Brazil at Gahanga Cricket Stadium in Kigali this afternoon local time. Brazil is ranked 28th, while Nigeria sits on the 37th spot on the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) T20I ranking.
Nigeria’s second match will be against Germany at the IPRC pitch, before dueling with Botswana, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and finally Rwanda in the closing group match.