Nigeria Content Online

The
Nigeria Cricket Federation has come out with a communiqué stating the
successes of 2010 and what the federation is planning to do to top
those achievements. The NCF instituted a scheme for members of the
national team to further motivate them during tournaments. Five players
are the initial beneficiaries of this scheme and are: Endurance Ofem,
Kunle Adegbola, Joshua Ogunlola, Saheed Akolade and Jide Bejide.

The Federation held
a series of training camps during 2010, the most notable of which held
in Ibadan, Oyo State in March 2010. The Federation also tried to
upgrade some existing cricket facilities in the country and one of
these was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the
University of Lagos on Perimeter Fencing of the Cricket Oval in the
school. Also women’s cricket was looked into and in June 2010, the
maiden edition of the National Women Cricket Championship was held in
Lagos. Edo, Lagos, Imo and Ogun States were in attendance and Lagos
State emerged as the champions.

An ICC-ACA Cricket
Administrators Programme (CAP) on Financial Management was also in
Lagos in held in June. The one-day course was facilitated by Okon
Ukpong, chairman of the Technical Committee of NCF and assessed by
Patrick Okeke, secretary-general of NCF. The programme was designed by
the International Cricket Council (ICC) to improve the practical skills
of cricket administrators.

The NCF appointed a
general manager/chief operating officer in compliance with the
directive of ICC to all associate countries. George Wiltshire was the
person chosen for the positions.

Wiltshire has drawn up a lot of programmes for 2011 and top of these
is the World Classification League that Nigeria will be involved in.
The COO said: “We have arranged for our training camp in Benoni, South
Africa and we hope to have all that will be needed by the players in
place weeks before they will be going to the camp in South Africa.” The
year 2010 was ended with the U-15 ICC-ACA North-West Africa tournament
was held in Nigeria in December 2010. Sierra Leone emerged the winner
of the tournament. Ghana came second, followed by Nigeria in the third
position.