The President of the Nigeria Cricket Federation, Uyi Akpata has informed that the upcoming Sports festival to be hosted in Ogun State will be played on one of the newly upgraded cricket facilities by the Federation.
According to him, “We have been on a quest to ensure that the growth of cricket is beyond talent discovery. Facility upgrade is one of the pieces of the puzzle we are committed to fixing to accelerate the game’s development and a sustainable one at that.”
Akpata informed that the turf wicket at the MKO Abiola Stadium has been upgraded and the players at the Sports Festival will be assured of a good and fair play at the Oval.
“Nigeria has hosted two World Cup Qualifiers in the space of five months in Abuja and Lagos, since November 2024. This is in response to the quality of the world-class facilities that Nigeria now has. We have two other facilities in Edo too that have been upgraded to this standard.” He said.
Akpata said the facility at the MKO Abiola stadium is part of the four new concurrent facilities that the Federation has been working to deliver.
“We are working on one in the University of Nigeria Nsukka, We have just delivered a facility in Uyo at the Community Secondary Commercial School in Uyo, and work is presently going on Oval at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna.
“The MKO Abiola Oval is ready and we are very proud of the work done because it will complement the talent development drive in the state, apart from the Sports Festival it will serve.”
Akpata emphasized that Nigeria’s recent rise in cricket is hinged on five strategic imperatives that the Federation has been working on, which included: Promoting the game at all levels, Facility development, Pursuing Strategic Partnerships, Improving the quality of players and officials, and maintaining appropriate governance and finance structures.
“The Federations system has been driven by this in the last four years and has given us results. We are working at improving on them with the intent to deepen the impact and also simply its adoption at the local level.” He added.
