By Segun Folarin
The Nigeria Cricket Federation, NCF, has promised to take advantage of the facilities provided by Ogun State through establishing a partnership with government to bring more cricket actions to Abeokuta.
Speaking on the heels of the just concluded National Sports Festival tagged Gateway Games 2024, President of the Nigeria Cricket Federation, Uyi Akpata has praised Ogun State’s ‘first of its kind’ twin oval at the MKO Sports Arena in Abeokuta and it’s successful hosting of the 22nd National Sports Festival.
While praising the state government for putting up a show with the festival in general and athletes, for playing games with high spirits and standard, Akpata gave kudos to the leadership of the Ogun State Cricket Association led by Mr Dare Kuforiji for creating a twin oval which he described as a rare feat even around Africa.
“Having the twin oval dedicated to cricket in the stadium is exciting and it’s only in Abuja where it was only developed in a different concept, so for me it’s exciting and it shows huge opportunities, there are only few of it available in all of Africa and the Ogun State government has an added advantage and the NCF is looking to work with the Ogun State government and the Ogun state cricket association to establish a partnership that will make the pitches cricket international standard and bring more cricket competitions to Ogun state” Akpata said.
He said the first strand of the NCF’s 5 imperatives is sustainable partnerships admitting that the federation cannot do it alone.
The NCF President noted that the body would align with a viable partner like the Ogun state government, who have provided the land, interest and support alongside the state cricket association’s demonstration with its experienced personnel which shows that cricket is in safe hands in Ogun state.
“The NCF has verbal memorandum of understanding with the leadership of the Ogun State Cricket Association and when I go back to discuss with my board and concretize the MOU, we will see how we can do the development. There are softer issues and we will identify the specific people who will be responsible as curators. The record has been 100% wherever NCF has partnered with people or even in terms of our own facilities, the standard in terms of maintenance has totally improved and at the end of the day we are going to bring professional curators here (Abeokuta) who will take care of the facility” he said.
He concluded that Ogun State is now a key contender to host the next regional and national cricket competitions in the next few years, hinting that the PwC u17 finals may even hold in the state sooner once details are concluded with the key stakeholders in the state.
