TheCable

Edo state’s men team outran their counterparts in Kaduna with 57 runs on Wednesday to emerge champion of the national men’s cricket championship in Benin city.

Team Kaduna finished as runner-up while Lagos secured the third spot.

Peter Aho, Kaduna captain and a prominent member of the national under-19 cricket world cup team last year in South Africa, said the team owed the victory to discipline and what he called huge support from the Edo State Cricket Association.

“We give the glory to God and we thank all our mentors and especially dedicate this victory to the leadership of the Edo State Cricket Association that has sacrificed so much and encouraged my team to this height,” Aho said.

On his part, Yahaya Ukwenya, president of the federation, said the event served its purpose.

“We set out to, among other things, use this event as a platform for the best players in the country to showcase their skills. Apart from the impressive displays, the opportunity to have more players drawn into the pool to be camped for national assignments that the country would be involved in later in the year is very key,” Ukwenya said.

“The national coach, Asanka Gurusinha, has watched every match of this championship with a team of selectors and soon our national camp will open for the assignments ahead with some new players invited based on their performance here.”

Mustapha Yussuff of Team Lagos was named the Bowler of the series for bowling 16 wickets in four matches while Edo’s Selim Salau and Kaduna’s Isaac Okpe were adjudged the Fielder and Batsman respectively.

Sylvester Okpe, captain of the runner-up team, was named the Most Valuable Player.

Kofi Sagoe, the recent re-appointed chairman of Lagos State Cricket Association and one of the selectors at the Benin event, said the competition had put some players under the spotlight — a development he said would enrich the national team.

“I think we should commend the work done by the federation for constantly pushing the boundaries for developmental initiatives. We have some learnings and have seen some more promising talents that should be mentored and groomed,” Sagoe said.

“As for Lagos, our team was adjudged third based on Net Run Rate, since there was no third place match. The players are back in Lagos and we have commenced technical analysis of our performance at the Benin competition with a view to making us place better at the forthcoming National Sports Festival starting in Edo State on April 4.”

The national men’s championship started off on March 22 with eight teams grouped into Pools A and B (Lagos, Edo, Kwara, Anambra, Kaduna, Ebonyi, Rivers and Oyo).