By Grace Ekujumi, Lagos
Vice-President and facility sub-committee Chairman of the Nigeria Cricket Federation, Oyewole Obalola, has said that the newly upgraded Tafawa Balewa Square Cricket Turf in Lagos will be a good test for the female national team, when the 6-nation invitational tournament gets underway later in the month.
According to Obalola, “The campaign to have better Cricket playing facility is one of the cardinal goals of Federation and, we are glad that our prime facility, the Tafawa Balewa Square Oval is now at par with international standard,” he said
He added that the lack of top-grade cricket turf wickets has been one of the limiting factors for developing top Cricket talent in the past and the current spate of development of facilities across the country will help relegate that to the background.
“Before now, we usually plan a training tour for our teams to go have a go at some turfs wickets in some countries, as part of our international event’s participation procedure, which is additional cost, time and resources to us and to cap it all up, most of the time, we gain little for to help us take on the more experienced sides.”
The ten-strip Tafawa Balewa Square turf in Lagos is one of the seven new facilities that the Federation has put up in the last two years to compliment the talent development plan of the Federation and will be the center stage of the forthcoming Nigeria International Women T20 Tournament to start in Lagos from March 26th, 2022.
“We want our girls to get accustomed to it and get comfortable with playing competitive event off the turf wickets, so the coming event is a litmus test for the girls and an upgrade for the level of home games they are usually exposed to,” Obalola also said.
The six-nation Women twenty-over Tournament will be hosted in Lagos with Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and The Gambia battling for honour from March 26 to April 4, 2022.
