The Middlestump set to hold roundtable on cricket ‘growth in Africa’

The Middlestump, the cricket media organization, on Tuesday announced the panelists for the latest edition of the Africa Cricket Roundtable, scheduled for August 13.

Tayo Sowole, co-founder of the cricket media outfit, said the roundtable sought to give wings to “the sport’s development on the continent by encouraging knowledge sharing for critical skills that would spur growth.”

“In the past, we have looked at talent development and management and essential skills for making that a sustainable process for the game,” Sowole said.

“We have also looked at developmental opportunities that associate members can leverage and this is why we bring experienced and successful professionals and administrators to share their knowledge.”

According to the co-founder, the roundtable — which is usually hosted on The Middlestump’s Twitter handle (@themiddlestump2) — would help cricket administrators to navigate the vagaries of successful event planning with deliberate interest in making attendees develop a workable blueprint that is practical and suitable for their individual environment.

“I think the driving force for this comes from the fact that events are an undeniable part of development and we have seen a number of the cricket federations gathering useful experience that others can learn from,” he also said.

“The Kwibuka Women’s T20 for instance has grown from just a showcase for women’s cricket to a model for cricket event planning and if we can get them to share the template for other African members through the ACR platform, it would be such a success.

“ICC Africa and a number of African countries will be deeply involved in different events for which this edition of Africa Cricket Roundtable will help provide ease of organisation.”

Kuben Pillay, director of finance, International Cricket Council Africa, is expected to be the lead panelist.

Other panelists include Martin Suji, a key official of the Cricket Rwanda team; Roland Ilube, president of the Nigeria-United Kingdom Cricket Association; and Rosine Ingabire, women’s co-ordinator for Cricket Rwanda.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Cricket Federation, co-host of the event, is billed to host the division 2 qualifiers for the U-19 World Cup in Abuja from September 30 to October 8.

This is just as the Botswana Cricket Association is also hosting the inaugural Women’s U-19 World Cup qualifiers in September.