Sports
Cricket: Women National Team Begins Tournament Today
Nigeria’s women’s national cricket team, Women Yellow-Greens, who departed for Rwanda, on Monday for the Seventh Kwibuka Women’s T20 tournament in Kigali, are hopeful of success at the event featuring teams from across the world.
The first batch of the Nigerian delegation, which flew to Kigali from the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos, comprised players, officials and training kits before the arrival of other half of the team on Tuesday.
The event this year is also featuring Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Botswana, Germany, Brazil and hosts, Rwanda.
Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF) President, Uyi Akpata, said the team, which camped at the Cricket High Performance Centre in Benin, Edo State for one-month, would put up a decent show at the event that gets underway today.
“Our team is very prepared and has shown steady rise in their performance over the years. Earlier in the year, they finished second to Rwanda in the maiden NCF Women’s Invitational T20I that we hosted. And as a federation, the event was instituted to help harness the growing potential that we have discovered in our development journey,” he said over the weekend.
Akpata said the game in Nigeria has been on the upswing, adding that women’s interest in the sport has been encouraging for the Federation.
“Given the level of preparation that the players had, I am confident they will put up a good show in Rwanda.”
He said the Nigerian team is only ranked above Botswana of the other competitors, adding that due to the dedication shown by the team and their handlers, they are expected to grind out good results.
Nigeria’s opening match is against Brazil at Gahanga Cricket Stadium in Kigali this afternoon local time. Brazil is ranked 28th, while Nigeria sits on the 37th spot on the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) T20I ranking.
Nigeria’s second match will be against Germany at the IPRC pitch, before dueling with Botswana, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and finally Rwanda in the closing group match.
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor