NAN-S-18
Cricket
By Kemi Ajayi
Lagos, March 2, 2018 (NAN) As Nigeria prepares to stage the ICC Sub-Regional T-20 Qualifiers, Kuben Pillay, an ICC representative on Friday inspected the Tafawa Balewa Square Cricket Facility in Lagos,venue for the event.
Kuben, who was taken round the facility by the Vice-President of the Nigeria Cricket Federation, Uyi Akpata and other board members the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
Kuben, who spoke to NAN after the inspection, said he was pleased with the ongoing work on the pitch ahead of the event that would hold from April 16 to April 22.
The ICC representative said he believed that Nigeria has what it takes to host the region.
“With what I have seen so far, Nigeria is ready to host the ICC T-20 event, a lot of work is going on and the organising committee has assured that the facility will be ready before the event .
“We want to take Nigeria to where it belongs in cricket at the continental level and other Africa countries as well, so ICC is fully in support of the game at all level in Africa, ” he said.
Also speaking to NAN Akpata, who is also the Chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC), said that hosting the event in the country was an opportunity to re-integrate Nigeria into the global cricket realm.
He added that the effort of the board since its inception last year has given the sport a new lease of life, adding that the country was ready to host the ICC event.
“”This is a better way to re-integrate ourselves into the global cricket community because before now we were way below par in terms of cricket development.
“Since the last nine months, when this board came up, we have been able to bring everybody together to ensure that we move the sport forward.,” he said.
On the national team preparation, the Vice-President said that preparations was in top gear to ensure a good performnace.
“Last week 33 players was invited to camp for a high performance T-20 Super League tournament where we selected 22 players.
” The second phase of camp will commence on March 12 and three foreign players will join the 22 in camp., ” he said.
NAN repoets that Ghana, Sierra Leone, The Gambia and the host Nigeria would participate in the event .(NAN)
KOA/YAZ