Cricket is one of the fastest growing sports in Nigeria. The sport, introduced at the same time as football by the British colonial masters in the early days of the country, has made giant strides in the last four years such that pundits have predicted that Nigeria would become a regular World Cup nation if it continued at the current pace.

The managers of the game are modest about their expectations, though. But they agree that given the right support by both government and corporate Nigeria, the country could rise to become one of the top three cricket-playing nations in the continent.

South Africa is currently the undisputed king of cricket in the continent, competing yearly against the best Test and ODI-playing nations of the world.

However, among Nigerian cricket officials, there is the growing optimism that the country would get there soon if they continued on the current level of development.

During the week, some of the continent’s top cricket nations, including South Africa, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Ghana arrived in Lagos to participate in a 12-day women’s invitational tournament, which is part of the programmes lined up by the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF) to put the women’s national team at pace with the giants of the game in Africa.

The tournament, apart from helping the NCF gauge the standard of the women’s teams against these top countries, is expected to provide the competition that the girls need in their development process.

At a meeting with a group of senior sports writers last weekend, NCF President, Uyi Akpata, and some of members of his executive committee gave insight into some of the federation’s programmes aimed at maintaining the current growth path for the game.

Akpata, who was re-elected as NCF president for a second term last year, said that the board is not relenting in its efforts to make cricket the number two sport in the country, just behind football.

To set the tone for the big task, he said that the first thing the board did after its re-election was to convene a two-day summit of 30 stakeholders, including 13 board members, to refresh its strategy and map out programmes for the new term.

“I think the key thing that came out of that strategy meeting was how we’re going to reposition cricket and it has been impactful.

“We came out with a strategy aimed at making cricket a catalyst for economic and social development for Nigeria.’ The aim is to make cricket effective for all by just creating impact through the game of cricket.

“We are trying to impact the children through creating opportunities for them. We are also trying to impact sponsors by partnering with them to do different things. The philosophy of using the game of cricket to impact all stakeholders redefines how we look at things.

“But fundamentally, we also want to come with a better commercial outlook. We’ve now created a brand and we believe that whilst we’ve never really believed in going to beg for money, we’re judiciously managing our ICC funds, relying on cricket stakeholders to do their bits here and there.

“We now have a strong brand and a strong value proposition to go out and meet people.”

Akpata disclosed that some states, which were hitherto not interested in cricket, have started embracing the game to the extent that they are building structures to develop the sport.

“For the first time girls from Kano State took part in the PwC U-17 Championship. They and their parents were really excited to be part of the game.

“Recently, Niger State won their regional championship and it was big celebration in Minna.

“Our pillars have not changed. The first one is continued growth, take the game to the grassroots, and reach 250,000 children every year.” To achieve the 250000 new players target every year, Akpata said that the NCF has recruited some staff, adding that the federation has at least one Development Officer in each state.

“Now we have about 45 people fully employed as it relates to development. They go out, reach schools and we are getting states to partner with them so that we can do other things.

“They account for their activities…they tell us what they’re doing at intervals so that we keep abreast of the extent of development.”

He revealed that the NCF has made schools the bedrock of its development efforts, saying that partnering with schools makes it easier for the federation to recruit talented youngsters before other sports get to them.

“Recently, the Old Boys of St, Gregory’s College approach us for a developmental partnership. Government College Ibadan is actually doing cricket arena almost as good as the one at TBS.

“Now, students, who hitherto would have been distracted into crime, are now embracing cricket. These young ones grow to become seasoned internationals.

“For instance, when the girls came sixth at the ICC U-19 World Cup in Malaysia, I knew the ages of all those girls. They all came through the youth development pathway.

“We have grown in this game and the fact that South Africa and Zimbabwe want to come to Nigeria is part of the testament of how far we have grown in the sport.”

One aspect of the sport that the NCF has pursued fervently is facilities development.

Akpata said that the federation has been to get some organisations and states to invest in facilities, which he described as fundamental in the development of the sport.

“Apart from the twin ovals in Abuja, we can host any bog championship in Lagos, at the TBS and UNILAG.

We have fantastic facilities at GCI Ibadan, as well as Edo Boys High School, which has five strips.

“There is even one at Iyoba girls that is dedicated to women’s cricket. That is three strips.

“Kaduna is also coming. The NCF will partner with Kaduna cricket association to put up a world class facility there.

“Former Governor Nasir el-Rufai was doing a lot of things in that regard, but it stopped. They have done the pavilion and some other things and we are now partnering with them to get the pitch ready.

“Enugu, which is the next host of the National Sports Festival, is preparing facilities for cricket. We will help them to get the facilities right.”

Akpata emphasized that it is not the NCF’s duty to provide facilities for states, adding, however, that the federation is always handy assist any state that needs help to do things right.

Akpata disclosed that the new indoor facility at the TBS Cricket Oval is the first of its kind in West Africa, adding that in Africa, as a whole, only a few countries have such a facility.

“It is the product of a private partnership.

I think they have it in Zimbabwe. Namibia just got one recently. Before that, it was only in South Africa that you will this type of facility. So places like Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania don’t have this thing, which allows you to play cricket 24-7.

“We want to replicate it in Abuja and each of the geopolitical zones.”

The NCF president disclosed that the federation is building a strategic high performance in Benin, “which is a project I am doing with some of my friends.”

He said: “The foundation has been done. What we’re actually doing is partnering with sponsors to see what we can do.

“One of the things we want to also do this year is to have a standard pavilion in Abuja. But again, we’re going to be looking for partners to work with us on that.

“We are also thinking of having state-of-the-art changing rooms, offices and all the others. Hopefully that will start this year.

“Facilities, equipment and others come under the second pillar. The third one, which everybody sees and wants to do, is high performance.”

Akpata said that the efforts in developing the game have paid dividends with Nigeria now ranked number 26 in the world in the women’s category and number 36 in the men’s ranking.

“Kenya’s Coach Steve Ticolo just left after three years with us. He did very well. He was a hands on and hard-working person, who changed many things about our game. But he had to leave for family reasons and some other commitments.”

Akpata said the NCF will not fall into the trap of scouring Europe and Asia for players with Nigerians names to come and play for the country, adding that there is well-laid out programme to develop talented stars from within the country.

“Every day we receive messages from Indians living in Nigeria that want to play for us. But we are deliberately looking for home-grown talents, who, we will build to become superstars.

“We are deliberate in raising stars that will compete in Africa and grow to gain recognition in the world. That is why we are bringing the best coaches and creating the right environment for them to thrive.

“That’s where the CCC League comes in. The CCC League has been revitalized and now it is the best league in West Africa.

“The fact is that it is even more intense than the Zimbabwean League. All the players are active all year unlike before when they don’t play many games.

“Now the NCF has actually partnered with the CCC League to be sure that we operate at that level where we can have a national competition.

“It is in that respect that this year, hopefully in May, we are going to have our first Nigerian Super League, which will feature six teams over three weeks.

“Each team will have three foreign-based players, just like India’s Premier league.

“Teams can go and bring in people from Zimbabwe, Ghana or any other African country, if they can afford them. We have an Africa focus for now.”

He said that the federation is looking beyond Africa in its league development efforts, adding that with the right marketing and partnership, European and Asian players will soon find reasons to want to play in Nigeria.

“We are talking to one or two good brands every day. We are doing this because we understand that playing regularly against the best opposition helps the players to improve on their game.

“It is because of the way we are going that one of our key players has been invited to come and play in Zimbabwe. Two went to South Africa last year, while some went for training. Three of our girls are supposed to be going to Zimbabwe.”

Akpata disclosed that the NCF has almost finalized the appointment of a new high performance coach, saying that the chosen one could be announced by the end of this month.

“We have a board meeting on March 28 where we will ratify the process.

The last time we went through this process, we had 22 people interested in the job. This year, 45 people showed interest.

“At this stage, we have reduced the number to 10. So the committee will to talk to those 10 during a virtual meeting and shortlist three of them. It is from those three that the board will decide the chosen coach.

“We received exciting offers from as far as Australia, England, South Africa and Zimbabwe. “Our criteria are that you must either have coached a national team or you must have coached a first class team and also have played the game at the highest level.”

He said that the NCF has been trying to build partnerships, getting sponsors on board, improving its communication strategy in terms of how it put outs out to enhance the brand cricket.

He added: “The enablers still remain the governance structure. If you don’t have a proper governance structure in place built on transparency and building trust, no one will take you serious at the end of the day.

“That structure is important because it builds great and thriving cricket ecosystem that blends competitive excellence with commercial success, thus making the sport a catalyst for economic and social development for Nigeria.”