TheCable

Uyi Akpata, president of Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF), says the fourth edition of the zonal U-17 PwC-NCF championship will commence on Friday.

Akpata disclosed this on Wednesday.

The NCF president said boys and girls representing Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Ekiti, and Oyo states will assemble at the Liberty Stadium and Government College Ibadan cricket pitches to set the event off.

“Nigeria’s cricket is negotiating a critical period in its history and this championship will prove a major factor in that regard with over a thousand kids participating in the qualifiers,” he said.

Apata said the annual event has since become the cornerstone for developmental cricket in Nigeria.

According to him, the championship has produced brilliant youngsters — some of whom have had national team call-ups.

“This championship forms the natural selection process for the national U-19 teams and we have seen some players graduate to the senior national teams from here and thanks to our sponsors, PwC Nigeria, uLesson and Bento Africa, we would deepen our search for more talents,” he added.

States in the south-east will assemble their zonal elimination event at St. Patrick College, Emene, Enugu from January 24 to 29.

Ebonyi, Imo, Anambra, Abia and host Enugu state will vie for a place to represent the zone at the national finals later in February.

The north-east and north-west will run their elimination events from January 26 to 29 and 26 to 31 respectively.

The north-east teams will compete at the Pantami Stadium in Gombe, where Borno and Taraba will join the host state to chase for slots. In the north-west, Kano, Kaduna, Kebbi, Jigawa, Sokoto and Zamfara states will compete at the Abdu Haliru Stadium in Kebbi.

Defending champion in the male and female categories, the south-south, has scheduled its qualifiers to run from January 29 to February 2.

Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Delta, Rivers, Bayelsa and Edo states will slug it out for the national finals slots at the Edo Boys High School, Benin City.

Tayo Solawole, organising committee chairman, assured that the best practices would be deployed in officiating and conditions for the kids arriving from different places to participate.

“We have concluded plans to make the kids have an enjoyable championship and as a measure our hospitality, all players will be treated as winners or losers,” he said.