Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF) Prtesident, Uyi Akpata, at the weekend, disclosed that all is now set for the maiden Women’s Invitational T20I Tournament billed to flag off at the Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos next week.
The four-day tournament will begin on March 28.
According to Uyi, “We have just few days to the official opening event and we have most of our boxes ticked. The ground is taking very good shape and necessary accessories needed for the full running of an event of this magnitude are almost fully in place. I can say we are very ready.”
The event, when it gets off next Monday, will become one of the biggest women’s cricket events on the continent, given the pool of participating countries it parades.
“We are expecting the five other countries joining Nigeria to start arriving on Saturday and we have a number of pre-event formalities scheduled to go on from there until the first ball on next Monday,” he added.
Akpata added that the event has also enjoyed huge support from corporate Nigeria, horse racing today especially those with some measure of interest in the gender perspectives that the event addresses.
“We would be making a show of our sponsors and partners sometimes during the week and I believe their support at this time has been a huge plus for this event taking off in the first place,” he said.
He revealed that international Cricket Council (ICC), Africa, mobile shop bet which has sanctioned the event, would be monitoring proceedings from the start to finish, including making each match count for each nation’s ranking.
Four foreign umpires will officiate at the event, betting tips today with two of the participating countries, Rwanda and Sierra Leone, providing one each; while the other two will come from neutral non-participating countries, bet of the day Kenya and Uganda.
They would be joined by four home-based umpires in officiating at all the 12 matches of the tournament.
Akpata said the Women’s Invitational T20i Tournament is part of the NCF’s developmental plan and will be upheld as a yearly event to sustain the growing interest and sports betting app extraordinary achievements that the Federation has attained with women’s enrollment into the game in the past few years.
This year, he added, more than 125, 000 women cricketers are projected to be recruited into the game through the Federation’s nationwide grassroots programme.
