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By: Abiodun Adewale.
Two months after their heroics at the Nigeria Cricket Federation T20i tournament, Nigeria’s senior female cricket team, the Female Yellow Greens, will faceoff with four other African countries at the ninth edition of the Kwibuka tournament in Kigali, Rwanda from June 10 – 18.
Nigeria will be making their fourth appearance at the five-nation competition.
After three weeks of camping at the Edo State high-performance centre in Benin City, the team arrived Lagos on Thursday and will depart for Kigali on Friday (today) ahead of their first match against Rwanda on Saturday.
Eighteen players were invited to camp, but after a regime of batting, bowling and fielding drills, coupled with a series of friendly matches, the squad was reduced to 14.
Longest serving and most experienced player Blessing Etim will lead the team as captain, to be assisted by Favour Esiegbe as vice captain. Other familiar names include Salome Sunday, Lucky Piety, Rachael Samson and Agatha Uadiale while Oseyande Omokhiobhio and Omonye Asika return to the team after missing out during the Lagos tournament in March.
Leke Oyede’s side head into the tournament as the fourth best nation on the International Cricket Council rankings among the participants. Being 19th in the world, Uganda are the best ranked side, followed by Kenya, who are ranked 23rd, Rwanda ranked 26th, Nigeria in 29th and Botswana the least ranked in 41.
“Our preparations have been adequate and considering the fact that we just won a tournament here in Lagos, we are going to Kwibuka with that same momentum,” team captain Etim said.
Nigeria’s first game will be against familiar foes Rwanda – the team they beat by nine runs to win the NCF T20i in April. Afterwards they will face Botswana, Kenya and Rwanda before the round-robin fixtures are reversed.
