…As Regi George hands over to Oludare Aimola as President of Cricket Club Abuja (CCA)
The Cricket Club Abuja last Sunday, December, 18th at the CCA Oval, Package “B”, Moshood Abiola Stadium, Abuja, defeated archrival, Millennium Indians in an exciting match that had spectators on the edge of their seats for the most part of the game on the final day of the CCA-OLAM Agri T20 Blast.
The day started with the third-place match between the CCA Panthers and the Millennium Challengers, a game won by the CCA Panthers. The high point of the day was the handing over ceremony of the old Executive Committee (Exco) of the Cricket Club Abuja (CCA), led by Mr. Reji George to the new Exco led by Mr. Oludare Aimola.
The tournament tagged, CCA-Olam Agri T20 Blast had the following participating teams, the CCA Panthers, CCA Tigers, Millennium Challengers, and the Millennium Indians. The tournament which commenced on the 27th of November, 2022 had eight matches played over a period of four Sundays in the last four weeks.
In the Final Round games, the CCA Panthers squared up against the Millennium Challengers in the Third-Place match, while the Millennium Indians played against the CCA Tigers in the final match. The following were the results of the two games on the final day:
THIRD PLACE MATCH
CCA Panthers vs Millennium Challengers
The first game of the final day started at 8.30 am and was played in a T10 format as the 3rd place match between CCA Panthers and Millennium Challengers. The toss was won by the Panthers and they opted to bat first. At the end of 10 overs, CCA Panthers batted 94 runs for 4 wickets.
The Millennium Challengers came to chase 94 runs and needed 95 runs to win.
However, their best efforts on this day could only get them 64 runs for 3 wickets at the expiration of 10 overs.
The CCA Panthers won by 30 runs and were placed third.
The best performances of the game for batters are as follows; Amit Shahzad (CCA) 29 runs off 21 balls, Shushant Shinde (Millennium Challengers) batted 27 runs off 29 balls and Amith Sebastian (CCA) with 25 runs off 13 balls.
On the bowling side of the game, the following bowlers are the best performers, Durotoye Gideon (CCA) bowled 2 wickets in 2 overs and conceded 15 runs, Ravi Adtani (Millennium) bowled 2 wickets in 2 overs and conceded 19 runs, while Shushant Shinde bowled 1 wicket in 1 over, conceding 4 runs.
THE FINAL MATCH
Millennium Indians vs CCA Tigers
In the final game between the CCA Tigers and the Millennium Indians, the scores are were follows;
The Millennium Indians won the toss and chose to bat first. In 20 overs they batted 122 runs for 9 Wickets.
The CCA Tigers came in the second inning to chase 122 runs and needed 123 runs to win. The brilliant batting of the CCA saw them win when they outscored the Millennium Indians at 123 runs for 6 wickets in 19.3 overs.
Best Performances of the match are as follows; Arun Kuma of the Millennium Indians batted 40 runs off 29 balls, Mahesh Nimje of the Millennium Indians batted 30 runs off 35 balls and Subhradip Dey of CCA Tigers batted 28 runs off 24 balls.
In the bowling department of the game, the following were top bowlers; Nishant Kuma Singh of the Millennium Indians bowled 4 wickets in 4 overs, conceding 18 runs. Adnan Akbar of CCA Tigers bowled 3 wickets in 4 overs, conceding 16 runs. Talabi Obafemi of CCA Tigers bowled 2 wickets in 4 overs and conceded 20 runs.
At the end of the final match, the prizes won were:
Man of the Final Match was won by Adnan Akbar with a prize money of fifteen thousand Naira (15k).
Speaking to CROSSFIRE REPORTS after the game, Captain of the CCA Tigers, Saad Tariq Butt said, his side’s victory was attributable to discipline, unity and determination.
“The secret is discipline and unity. We stayed together throughout the tournament with common focus and determination. At the beginning, it wasn’t easy and I commend the Millennium Indians for putting up a good fight,” Tariq-Butt said.
Also speaking to Crossfire Reports, Captain of the Millennium Indians, Madan Sharmar said the CCA deserved their victory. “We fought but the score was not enough. Our bowlers did a good job, restricting them but they were able to have their way. I congratulate the team. We’ll have to plan for next season and we’ll take it to another level.”
The overall tournament prizes were:
• Best Batter: Abhishek Patel (15k), Best Bowler: Adnan Akbar (15k), Best Fielder: Arun Kumar (15k) and Best Wicket Keeper: Tushar Gupta (15k)
• Best Player of Tournament: Abhishek Patel of Millennium Indians (25k).
• The winner of the CCA-OLAM Agri T20 Blast 2022 is CCA Tigers, who won by 4 wickets and got a cash prize of Five Hundred Thousand Naira (N500, 000).
After the games, just before the presentation of prizes, the Old EXCO officially ended its tenure and the new EXCO was inaugurated.
The newly elected CCA Executive Committee is made up of the following members; Oludare Aimola- President, Saad Tariq Butt – Vice President, Michael Egiethua – General Secretary/PRO, Nithin John – Financial Secretary, Amit Sebastian – Captain, Talabi Obafemi – Vice Captain, Amir Shahzad – Administrative Officer and the outgoing President automatically became Ex-Officio member.
The Old Executive Committee was composed as follows: Regi George – President, Mike Micah – Vice President, Michael Egietha – General Secretary, Saad Tariq Butt – Captain, Peter Yakubu – Welfare Officer, Abbe Singh – Financial Secretary, Welfare Officer – Amith Sebastian and PRO – Peter Yakubu, Ex-Officio – Oludare Aimola.
Olam Agri was the major sponsor of the CCA-OLAM Agri T20 Blast and was supported by other sponsors that included, Prime Housing, Aspira, Fullmark, Cilantro Restaurant, KnF Food Art.
The outgoing President of the Cricket Club Abuja, Mr. Reji George who spoke to Crossfire Reports before he handed over said, the tournament had lived up to its objective, which was merely to increase its popularity in Nigeria and the enormous benefits of the sport.
Mr. George said, the CCA has excellent players and youth participation in the game has increased greatly in recent years, adding that, Abuja and environs is currently leveraging on the benefits of the sport as a dragnet to recruit the next generation of players for the game of Cricket.
‘‘We want to take the game of cricket to schools and the younger generation, we are aware that the game attracts some form of lack of interest from the general public and due to the capital and monetary intensity of the game, we are hoping that more money can be put into the game of cricket and this can only be done by the government.
‘‘As an organization we are mapping out ways for money generation as this will increase interest in the game and encourage younger players to take it up as a means of livelihood. Using India as a case study, there was no money in the game, it was the same in India as it is here in Nigeria presently, but currently you can see the large amount of money that can be generated from the game of cricket in India.
‘‘More and more youths are coming into the game and there is a visible significant amount of improvement that has happened over the past couple of years but we need to do more.
He however noted that his tenure has been very eventful as he urged the newly inaugurated exco to continue with the proposed Projects and make groundbreaking significant progress.
‘’It was a good term of 4 years and my high point is that we have kept the game alive and actively functioning, we have had a significant number of tournaments and the ministry of sports has been very cooperative with the Cricket Club Abuja’’ he said.
Also speaking to Crossfire Reports, incoming President of Cricket Club Abuja, Oludare Aimola, who is also a representative of the North Central Zone on the Board of the Nigeria Cricket Federation, as well as being the Chairman of Kogi State Cricket Association said, for youth development and empowerment, the government must pump in more funds into sports in the country.
He explained that his administration as President of CCA will focus on further youth involvement and development of the game as some of their coaches were presently in schools within Abuja and its environs.
‘‘To take our youths off the streets, we need to invest more in sports, considering the fact that sports drives the economy of many nations. When you engage the youths, they are making a living and you are sure that they can support their families as a chain reaction.
‘‘For my administration we will have a lot of competitions coming up because that is the only way to drive our development programs, presently we have some of our coaches in the schools in Abuja and its environs. We will also be collaborating with the government because cricket is kind of expensive.
‘’We have the soft ball cricket where you need a little space, your ball and you can play, just like the street football’’ he said.
One of the other sponsors of the CCA-OLAM Agri T20 Blast, ASPIRA spoke to Crossfire Reports on the sidelines about its commitment to sports development.
The Marketing Manager of Aspira Abuja, Adewusi Bidemi, explained that sponsoring the cricket event was an avenue to give back to its loyal Nigerian customers and make their products a household name.
‘‘We have been in Nigeria operating locally for decades and so far we have shown our interest in sports, we are also the sponsors of Kano Pillars, so we have been able to penetrate into the market and spread our tentacles’’.
He however explained that for sports to thrive in the country, companies, private individuals and organizations must begin to emulate the Aspira brand and support sports development in the country.
The Cricket Club Abuja is the foremost Cricket Club in the FCT and environs, it was established in 2006 to develop the game of Cricket in Abuja and it’s environs, as well as, to provide an avenue for lovers of the game to play Cricket on a regular basis with tournaments and competitions organised yearly.
