For the better part of last month, some of the women’s cricket playing nations in Africa, including South Africa, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Ghana were gathered at the Tafawa Balewa Square Cricket Oval in Lagos to fight for bragging rights and ultimately the ultimate at the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF)-sponsored Women’s Invitational Tournament, christened the “Patricia Kambarami Cup.”

The event also attracted cricket enthusiasts from across the country and some neighbouring countries, as well as some big corporate players.

Among such corporate supporters of the game was Providus Bank, which served as the headline sponsor of the tournament won by Nigeria.

Represented by Head, Strategy and Business Development, Ernest Elue, the bank said that it was at the event to lend its voice to Nigeria’s quest to win the tournament and seek ways to help in lifting the game to higher heights.

Speaking with The Guardian after Nigeria’s nine-run defeat of Rwanda to win the tournament, Elue described the triumph as the fillip his organisation needs to continue supporting the sport, which has been described as one of the country’s fastest developing sports.

Explaining Providus Bank’s foray into cricket sponsorship, Elue said: “We believe that sports are very integral to social and economic development in the country. So, as a generality, we like to identify with sports as a way of promoting social integration, creating some form of awareness, especially with respect to core values that we align with and that we promote as a bank.

“But talking about cricket, it’s not a very well-known and publicised sport in Nigeria, and whilst we like to see it get big sport in Africa and in the world, we’ve also identified with the values that cricket is promoting, which align with our own values; talking about resilience, team spirit, and tenacity.

And that is why we decided to identify with this federation and see how we can co-partner in promoting these values.”

Elue observed that the attendance figures at the NCF Women’s T20i Tournament indicate that the sport is gaining followership in the country, saying: “I am so impressed with the turnout, the followership, the spread. I mean, I was here as well on Tuesday, and I saw that as part of their social responsibilities, they got school children involved, they had some training with them, and I can see that there is interest building just by being here alone.

“I’m amazed by the number of followership, the number of participants, those who are keenly observing the sport. So, I’m impressed. I think the interest, the knowledge, awareness is growing, and if only the ideals of the sport can also be spread, then we’ll be talking about actual social building, social networking, which is good for the sport and the country as well.”