News from Nigeria

The Cricket Tour of Nigeria by London Nigerians Cricket Club (LNCC) tagged "Beyond the Boundary" ended on Sunday, March 30 at the Tafawa Balewa Cricket Oval with thrills. The tour which took them from Lagos to Abuja and back to Lagos was very successful and memorable for the tourists. This was the third tour of the club since the maiden one in 2000. The second tour was in 2006. The tour has been organized by the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF). Nigeria also held a press conference in which the NCF President welcomed all Guests and Members of the Press to the official unveiling of the North West Africa Cricket Championship (NWACC) Logo. Mr. Albert Okumagba, MD/CEO of BGL was called upon to perform the unveiling of the NWACC logo. The NWACC will be hosted by Nigeria at three venues, TBS, University of Lagos both in Lagos and MKO Abiola Stadium in Abeokuta.

From 1st to 11th April, 2008, Nigeria will host the 2nd NWACC tournament and the NCF is determined to increase the profile of the sport in the country. The NCF President mentioned that he is pleased to advise that the ACA is particularly delighted with their progress administratively in the last two years and is ready to assist in transferring that success to the field of play so that they can qualify for better levels of funding from the ICC.

On Sunday, March 16, the Tafawa Balewa Cricket Oval was set on fire with the sound of willow on leather as the semi-final matches of the maiden edition of GTA 20/20 Cricket Tournament lived up to the expectations of cricket enthusiasts.

In the first semi-final match played between Rocks CC of Abeokuta and Howzat Pioneers CC of Lagos, Rocks won by 3 wickets to secure a ticket for the final. Pioneers scratched all the way throughout their innings to score 102 runs for 8 wickets. Rocks won the game in the 13th over. Niyi Adegbola (35*) and Joshua Ogunlola (26).

In the second semi-final match played at the same venue, hard fighting Foundation Cricket Club proved all wrong when they chased the 197 runs scored by the Lagos Asians CC and beat the target in the last over for the loss of 6 wickets. It was a really explosive encounter as a total of 15 sixes were scored by both sides.

Top scorers for the Lagos Asians were Changrani (45), Giu (67), Chamrani (31) and Amjadi (23) while for Foundation CC were Dolapo Gafar (36),Femi Oduyebo (65), Tayo Atoloye (34), Wale Adeoye (21) and Oris Oruye (18*).

Mr. Tosin Runsewe, the Managing Director of Guaranty Trust Assurance who witnessed the exciting and explosive encounters was pleased with the standard of play and the level of organization of the tournament and pledged that his organization will continue to support the 20/20 series.

The final match is set to take place on Sunday, April 27, 2008 at the Tafawa Balewa Cricket Oval.