Picking Players Was Challenging, Reveals National Women’s Cricket Coach
Coach of Nigeria’s senior women’s national cricket team, Leke Oyede, said picking the 14-player squad ahead of the third edition of Nigeria Women’s T20 Invitational has been a challenging task.
Oyede said on Tuesday that the team’s technical crew had a pool of very talented players to choose from.
“Reducing the number of players in the squad to a team of 14 players was a challenging task,” Oyede said.
Team Nigeria camp in Benin in preparation for the tournament which begins on Monday in Lagos.
“We have been in closed camp for about a month now in Benin,” Oyede added.
“Before the closed camping, we (technical team) had been on tour to some states to see and engage with talents there and take note of a few others and assemble them for camping,” Oyede said.
“We started with inviting batters to camp for a week, trained and worked with them to be able to achieve the result we need. We did the same for the bowlers a week after and we were able to come out with a squad for closed camping.”
“Now, we have trimmed the size of the team to 14 players and we have two players on standby and they are the ones who will execute the task in Lagos, we leaving alongside the technical crew for Lagos on Wednesday,” Oyede added.
The debutants Cameroon, Ghana, Sierra Leone, defending champions Rwanda and Nigeria will be participating in the tournament billed to end on April 2.
Hosts Nigeria will begin their campaign against Sierra Leone in the tournament’s opening match, with Oyede assuring that the team were ready to face other contenders.
“For us, there are no underdogs in this competition,” Oyede added. “Although, we lost only the final game to Rwanda in the previous edition, we will not underrate any team this time around.
“From the last time we met these teams till now, I can imagine how much they have improved because we have improved as a side as well. So, we respect all teams.”
NAN/Obinna Aniakor.
