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Nigeria’s U-19
cricket team returned from Swaziland on Sunday to a moderate reception
organised by the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF) at the Tafawa Balewa
Square (TBS), Lagos.

The team defeated
Gambia, Rwanda, hosts Swaziland, and Mozambique to qualify for the
final round of the Cricket World Cup Qualifier that will take place in
Namibia from August 28, 2010.

The Nigerian lads
will play against the best cricket nations in Africa. To make it to the
world stage, the team will have to beat Sierra Leone, Zambia, Tanzania,
Botswana and Kenya.

At a reception
organised for the team, the President of Nigeria Cricket Federation,
Kwesi Sagoe said the majority of cricket enthusiasts in the country are
happy with their performance in Swaziland. “You have done the country
proud with your performance on and off the field. This is a wonderful
performance and I believe you will form the nucleus of the senior
national team in the next two years or so,” he said.

Getting ready for Namibia

Sagoe, however,
warned the team that the real journey had just begun, and that they
still have to go all out to get the World Cup ticket. He also promised
that the federation will do everything in its power to motivate the
team by providing all the logistics to ensure qualification.

According to him,
the team would go on a week recess and resume for a closed camping
exercise in Lagos from August 10-19.The team will later camp in South
Africa for one week to acclimatise and get additional training before
hitting Namibia for the World Cup.

Nigeria came back from Swaziland with many awards such as the Best
Bowler of the tournament won by Adeniran Olumide; Best Batsman by James
Chukwu, who scored 103 runs against Mozambique; Man of the Series,
Olumide Adeniran with a total of 180 runs in all his innings and so
many man of the match awards. They were later rewarded with undisclosed
cash prizes by the president.