ICC lists Nigeria for major activities in 2021

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has listed Nigeria in two of its major activities for 2021, with the country enlisted to host one of them.

In a statement on Monday, the council also listed Nigeria as one of the major nations to vie for space for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 to be hosted in South Africa.

The Nigerian women team — currently 41 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 in October 2021.

A spot for the finals of the ICC Women’s World Cup would be up for grabs from the Botswana event.

Already listed on the ICC’s calendar in the qualifier for the Under-19 World Cup scheduled for 2022, Nigeria would host the final qualifying round for Africa in Abuja along with Namibia and Uganda.

A fourth team for the final rounds would also 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 to be staged by Nigeria in September.

The September campaign for the U-19 World Cup ticket will put Nigeria in global spotlight after the heroics from the country’s maiden qualification.

Speaking on the development, Yahaya Ukwenya, president of the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF), said the training schedules for the events would be released soon.

“We have a working plan already and we believe the input of our new Head Coach Asanka Gurusinha will add to the quality and especially execution. The two ICC events are very important to our developmental plans,” he said.

The NCF expressed optimism that Asanka Gurusinha, its newly appointed head coach, would explore his expertise to aid Nigeria’s chances at the forthcoming international engagements.