360 male cricketers set for national U-17 qualifiers

The Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF) says about 360 participants will feature in the boys’ qualifiers at this year’s edition of the PwC national U-17 Cricket Championship scheduled to start this weekend.

Endurance Ofem, the federation’s chairman of development and tournament committee who also doubles as the coordinator for the qualifiers, broke the news on Thursday.

Ofem described this year’s entry as historic, adding that he expects a keen competition among the young cricket players.

“We want the best team from each of the regions to make it to the national finals next month and for this reason we expect the players to fully express themselves to the technical team,” he said.

“We would have ODI, 30 overs in each of the centers. We have also put officers on the ground to ensure Covid-19 compliance, while the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports has sent in support in this regard, which is complemented with health officials in all the centers.”

Also speaking, Delia Asuzu, PwC’s head of marketing and communication, said her organisation had been attracted by the competition’s unifying factor and teamwork among the participants.

“Each region would present the best team from the regional qualifiers at the national finals, which calls for a great deal of teamwork. This is one of the values that we promote at PwC and we are happy that this event is built around it,” Asuzu said.

The national U-17 championship is the biggest platform for young cricketers. The national finals are scheduled to hold from January 28 to 31 (for girls) and February 4 to 7 (for boys).

Kaduna, Kano Zamfara, Jigawa, Sokoto would present teams for the northwest qualifiers in Kaduna.

Rivers, on the other hand, would host Edo, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Cross River and Bayelsa while representatives of north-central states from Kwara, Kogi and Plateau will slug it out in Abuja.

Enugu is expected to host Anambra, Ebonyi, Imo and Abia for the southeast region while Oyo will welcome Lagos, Ogun, Osun, and Ondo states in the southwest region.

Gombe, however, has automatic entry into the finals as the sole entry from the northeast.