Nigeria’s new Head Coach/High Performance Manager, Stephen Maziwa Mangongo, believes that the country will become a global superpower in cricket if all the talents and other resources are harvested to build strong men and women teams.

Mangongo, who expressed delight in getting the opportunity to work for a country “as blessed as Nigeria,” said the huge pool of talent and the willingness of the young men and women to work at all times will make it easy for any serious manager to take the teams to the top of the game.

Speaking at his unveiling to cricket stakeholders by the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF) board on Wednesday at the TBS Cricket Oval, Mangongo said: “I am delighted that my fellow African brothers have seen in their wisdom that a fellow African brother will deliver.

“I was invited by the NCF president last year to come and run a high-performance session in our national women’s squad. At the same time, we got the men’s team prepared to go to the battle with the qualifiers.

“So the first day I got here, I was told that training was going to start at 9 o’clock. So we got here around 8.20 a.m., and I thought we were late because the players were already here. So I asked one of the girls, ‘Are we late? And the girl said, no, no, no.’

“She then confirmed that training was starting at 9. To me, that was an indicator that made me say, from day one, that I want to be in the game here.

“The reason why the players were here is that, genuinely, those girls wanted to train, and from my experience coaching teams, you normally have two or three players coming late with various excuses. But on that particular day, all the girls were here before the scheduled time.

“It sent a message to me about the love, the passion, the wanting to learn by those ladies.”

Mangongo said that the attitude to learning is not limited to the girls alone, as he experienced the same with the men’s team.

He continued: “On that very same first day, at lunch, I saw some boys without a coach training by themselves, and I said to myself, I want to be here.”

He said that the difference between good players and the great ones is the attitude to training, the willingness to learn. “If you asked me to choose between a good player and a not-so-good player who is willing to learn, I would choose the latter because talent is not enough.

“This is where, I think, Nigeria is better than most African countries,” he said.

Apart from the willingness to learn, Mangongo said that the NCF’s grassroots development programme has placed the country in a great position to create great teams sooner than other countries, adding that the Yellow Greens can qualify for the 2028 World Cup if all the ingredients align for the cause.

“The amount of work that the Nigeria Cricket Federation is doing in terms of grassroots is fantastic.

“Please get me right; Nigeria is not the biggest cricket nation in Africa. However, Nigeria is leading the bigger countries in Africa because it is way on top in terms of grassroots.”

Turning to some of the players present at the event, Mongongo admonished them to be steadfast in their training, assuring them that the NCF has created an environment that could make international superstars.

“The Nigeria Cricket Federation, through the wisdom of the president, is giving you the opportunity of a lifetime, and my coming here is to help you guys achieve your dream.”

Mongongo, who honed his coaching skills training Zimbabwe’s U-15, U-19 and the Zimbabwe men’s team to glory, said that his dream is to take Nigeria to the World Cup for the first time.

He said: “It is achievable. If you don’t have ambition, then you don’t have any business being in sports. You must create a goal and work towards meeting that target.

“Yes, Nigeria is still a work in progress, but the talents are here, and with more hard work, nothing is impossible.

“I feel motivated to help a fellow African country take the game of cricket to the next level. So there is no better honour than to help your fellow Africans to achieve greatness in the sport.”

Earlier, NCF President, Uyi Akpata, explained that the federation went through a thorough screening regime to arrive at the choice of Mongongo as the country’s high-performance manager.

Akpata said: “About six, seven years ago, we wanted to take cricket back to the schools and bring in a strong grassroots programme and also get more people aware of the game.

“And now, we are deliberate about high performance. Our last head coach was a prominent person, who took us to great heights, where we moved from about mid-40s to about mid-30s now.

“After Steve Tikolo, we needed someone who fits in the boxes, and anywhere the board members went, we kept hearing one name, Mongongo.

“We went on a contest, and 44 people showed interest in being the head coach and high-performance manager for Nigeria.

“I am glad that after a robust one-month programme, a technical selection committee headed by our board member in the technical committee, Ladipo Idowu, came up with Mongongo.”