South-south wins double at national U-17 cricket championship

Both male and female teams representing the south-south region at the 3rd PwC National Cricket championship won their categories to emerge double champions.

The south-south boys ran over the south-east boys by 41 to checkmate their bowling attack that was led by Udekwe Chiemelie.

Tolu Adeleke, representative of sponsor of the championship, said the performances demonstrated in the five days finals of the event at the MKO Abiola Stadium Abuja surely justifies the investment that his firm has put in the organization of the event.

According to him, “none of the team that participated is a write off, they all have huge learnings here and we are glad to have seen different players from same region work together to achieve national honor.”

He emphasized that as much as this year’s final duel in the boys’ category between the south-east and the south-south was the high-point of the event, unity and integration by the regional teams was another that shouldn’t be shoved aside.

“The South-South team that won comprised of the players from Edo, Delta, Rivers, Akwa-Ibi and Bayelsa and that was key for us as their working together to achieve a coming purpose was the ultimate for us,” he said.

He also said participation of the north-east team that had Borno, Gombe and Taraba states represented an important feat for the event in just its third year.

“This year we had thousands of student who got screened to make the state team and 784 participated competitively at the regional finals before being narrowed down to the 168 kids that were camped for this event for the five days that the championship,” he added.

Prosper Useni, with twelve wickets, won the most valuable player (MVP) of the tournament for boys while Agboya Peculiar from the south-south girls’ team won the MVP.

Uyi Akpata, oresident of the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF), said the federation is focused on the game’s growth through the deliberate deployment of its five-strategic imperatives.

“We have enjoyed deep support of the Sports Ministry and the Honorable Minister, Sunday Dare has been magnanimous in his support for our programmes. We look forward to leveraging his support to getting more kids out here in the next editions and our other projects,” Akpata said.