Nigeria Cricket Federation aims for Africa’s top spot

The President of the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF), Uyi Akpata, says the federation’s target is to rank among the top three cricket-playing nations in Africa by 2026.

Akpata reiterated the federation’s determination to work towards achieving the feat.

“By 2026 we want to be recognised as one of the top playing Nations in Africa and the world. We have moved from 38 to 28 rank, we moved 10 steps ahead in the world, we just moved a step up from number eight in Africa to number seven.

“We also won an invitational championship in April; we also won the West Africa Trophy. We will continue to work hard to see our dream come through,” he said.

He said the female team would participate in the World Cup qualifier in December and that they stand a good chance of qualifying for the ICC T20 World Cup.

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Nigeria emerged victorious, by defeating arch-rival Rwanda by nine runs in Lagos at the Women’s T20i Invitational in March.

The men’s team will participate in the ICC T20 Men Africa qualifiers in Namibia in November, while the female team will participate in the World Cup division ICC T20 qualifier in Uganda in December.

Nigeria defeated Rwanda in the final by 17 runs to win the first edition of the West Africa Trophy in October in Lagos.