By Adeyemi Robinson-Adefioye Lagos
All is set for the third edition of the under 19 South-West Cricket tournament tagged Jide Bademosi Cup.
The tournament which starts from the second to 6th of march will feature Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti and the host Oyo States at the Obafemi Awolowo Cricket Pitch, Ibadan, Oyo State
The Tournament Director, Okon Ukpong said the event is organized to awakening the South West region.
Mr Ukpong former Nigeria and West Africa cricket captain further said the under 19 tournament is another way to prepare South West for a stronger presence at the regional elites level.
“The teams are expected to arrived on the second of March, on the third, fourth, fifth, the tournament will be bubbling.
“Professor Bademosi is our Icon and we need to celebrate him,the six states in the South-West have confirmed their participation for the 3rd edition of the Bademosi Cup.
“The South West under 19 event is basically a reawakening to the region especially based on the development of the game in the other regions in the country which we don’t want to lag behind. We made up our minds to see interns of players potentials and that is why we did not organize under 17 championship because there is region that organized National under 17 cricket developmental programme but we resulted in putting under 19 tournament on ground.
“Organizing under 19 competition is to prepare South West for stronger regional presence for the elites level and we all know that Professor Bademosi made a tremendous contribution to the development of cricket in South-West especially in Oyo State which is why the competition was named after him to appreciate his relentless effort on development of cricket over the years”.
The former Chairman of the Oyo State Cricket Association and Chairman Technical Committee of the Nigeria Cricket Federation, NCF, praised the present board of the NCF headed by Uyi Akpata for their immense effort in doing the right thing adding that what the South West is doing was complementary pointing out that the only area the board need to look at critically is the capacity content of coaching which would make the country more visible internationally.
“The present NCF board is doing very well, what we are doing in the South West is just complementary , the only area that I think we need to look at critically is a capacity in terms of coaching,there still a loophole in that area and we need to look critically at that, because that is the only thing that will make us to be more visible internationally and if so much is done administratively and in terms of infrastructure and the coaching content is not roburst ,it might fall short in terms of invisible internationally”. Stressed Okon.
