Cricket events at the forthcoming 22nd National Sports Festival, billed to be held from May 16 to 30 in Ogun State, will be played on facilities recently upgraded by the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF).
 
NCF President, Uyi Akpata, said at the weekend that the federation intends to ensure that the games are played on facilities akin to what obtains in major international championships.
  
“We have been on a quest to ensure that the growth of cricket is beyond talent discovery. Facility upgrade is one of the pieces of the puzzle that we are committed to fixing to accelerate the game’s development and a sustainable one at that.”
 
Akpata said that the turf wicket at the MKO Abiola Stadium, has been upgraded and players at the sports festival will be assured of a good and fair play at the Oval.
 
He said: “Nigeria has hosted two World Cup qualifiers in the space of five months in Abuja and Lagos, since November 2024. This is in response to the quality of the world-class facilities in Nigeria now. We have two other facilities in Edo that have been upgraded to this standard.”
 
Akpata said the facility at the MKO Abiola Stadium is part of the four new concurrent facilities that the federation has been working to deliver.
 
“We are working on one at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. We have just delivered a facility in Akwa Ibom at the Community Secondary Commercial School, in Uyo, and work is currently going on at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium Oval in Kaduna.
 
“The MKO Abiola Oval is ready and we are very proud of the work done there because it will complement the talent development drive in the state, apart from the Sports Festival it will serve.”
 
Akpata emphasised that Nigeria’s recent rise in cricket is hinged on five strategic imperatives that the Federation has been working on, which include promoting the game at all levels, facility development, pursuing strategic partnerships, improving the quality of players and officials, and maintaining appropriate governance and finance structures.
 
“The Federation’s system has been driven by this in the last four years and has given us results. We are working at improving on them with the intent to deepen the impact and also simply its adoption at the local level,” he added.