Nigeria’s team for the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) African qualifier for the maiden Women U-19 World Cup will depart the country tomorrow for the host city, Gaborone, Botswana.
Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF) President, Uyi Akpata, said while it is not in doubt that women’s cricket in the country is one of the leading development stories on the continent, the Federation has been working at spreading the effort across board.
He said: “It gives me joy to see the young teenagers that would be taking part in the maiden U-19 Women’s World Cup in Botswana. Virtually all the players representing Nigeria are the direct product of our schools developmental project, the ones that earned Nigeria the Global Development Awards.”
The final list of players to represent the country was released at the weekend after intensive camping at the Edo Boys High School’s high performance centre.
Miracle Imimole, who comes with experience as a current national team player, leads the list. Other players include Victory Igbinedion, Divine Uranta, Lucky Piety (Wk), Queen Joseph, Oseyande Omokhobhnlhio, Rebecca Awaji (Wk) and Aisha Shittu (Wk). They are all batters.
The bowlers include, Henrietta Mbam, Rejoice Assan (Spin), Peculiar Agboya, Ude Lillian, Judith Anthony, and Rukayat Abdulrasak, who is the team’s vice captain. The team’s standby players are Shola Adekunle and Amarachi Noko.
Team Coach, Onome Oghenekevwe, said they are primed for the event with a number of the players already regulars in the national women’s team.
“Our goal is to pick the World Cup ticket at the qualifiers. So, every game is important to us. The male side did it in 2019, so there’s nothing more than picking the ticket. Our team is motivated for the goal,” he said.
Nigeria will battle for the lone World Cup spot with Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, and host Botswana. The qualifiers will run from September 3 to 12 in Gaborone.
