BY Afolabi Gambari
Oyewole Obalola, vice-president of the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF), says the recently upgraded Tafawa Balewa Square cricket turf will serve as a good test for the female national team when the six-nation invitational tournament billed for March 26 to April 4 gets underway in Lagos.
The quest to have a better cricket playing facility in the country is one of the cardinal goals of the NCF under the leadership of Uyi Akpata, NCF president.
It is believed that the lack of top-grade cricket turf wickets has limited talent development for the sport.
“We are glad that our prime facility, the Tafawa Balewa Square Oval, is now at par with international standards. Before now, we usually plan a training tour for our teams to play on some turfs wickets in some countries as part of our international events’ participation procedure, which cost us valuable time and with little gain as we took on experienced sides,” Obalola said.
“We want our girls to get accustomed to the TBS’ upgraded facility and get comfortable with playing competitive event on it. So we see the coming event as a litmus test for the players as well as an upgrade for the home games they are usually exposed to.”
According to the NCF vice president, who is also the facility sub-committee chairman of the federation, the ten-strip TBS turf is one of the seven new facilities that have been built since 2020 to complement the federation’s talent development plan and will be the center stage of the impending tournament.
The six-nation event will have Ghana, Cameroon, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, The Gambia and host Nigeria competing for honours.
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