By Austin Okon-Akpan
The Junior Yellow-Greens, Nigeria’s Under-19 Cricket team are in Kigali, the Rwandan capital to begin the defense of the title that earned the country her first Cricket World Cup appearance.
The team used 10 days in Harare, Zimbabwe, where they had been on a pre-tournament tour for the last leg of their preparation for the Championship. The winner will represent Africa at next year’s ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup taking place in the West Indies. South Africa and Zimbabwe have already booked their places at the event along with 13 other teams.
Team Nigeria Coach, Uthe Ogbimi, is optimistic about the level of preparation that will get his team ready for the competition.
“We are going this ICC Under-19 Africa World Qualifier as the defending champion and that puts a lot of attention on us; we know that. But our plan is to take every game on their merit. Our most important game is our next game and we are primed to give our best to every game. No team at this event is ordinary and we hope to treat everyone with such respect.” He said.
Six-time winners of the event and last edition’s runner-up, Namibia, Uganda, Tanzania, and host Rwanda are the other teams competing for glory at the eight-day tournament.
Nigeria’s opening match at the event is on Friday, October 1st against host Rwanda before taking Tanzania on Sunday, October 3rd. Uganda’s encounter is set for Monday 4th before closing the event on a high against Namibia on Wednesday 6th.
The Junior Yellow-Greens is captained by Boniface Oche. Other team members include; Prosper Useni, Ridwanulahi Mohammed, Victor Ipoli, Destiny Chilemanya, Nzube Nwokike, Ridwan Kareem, Lukman Kofoworola, Joshua Sunday, Talabi Odunayo, Paul Pam, Huzaifa Abdulsalam, Theophilus Jeremiah, Isaac Onyemgba, Udekwe Chiemelie, and Elochukwu Ndubudem.
Credit: Channel TV News.
