Nigeria’s two Cricket pitches at the MKO Abiola Stadium in Abuja have been optimized for the hosting of the eight countries vying for the sole slot to the last phase of the Under 19 Men’s World Cup Qualifier from September 26.
President of the Nigeria Cricket Federation, Uyi AKpata, said the pitches are part of the six newly built turf wickets that was developed between 2020 and 2021 when the grounds men development programme was implemented.
“Today we have some of the best pitches in West Africa” Akpata said.
He said the High Performance Oval in Benin City was the first to be converted to standard turf wicket, before the University of Lagos and Tafawa Balewa in Lagos.
“Now due to the level of development of the grounds men we have high quality Cricket pitches and are already attracting international engagements. This speaks to the facility upgrade of the Federation’s agenda and we are not stopping yet.
“We are currently providing expatriate consulting in the development the two pitches in Ghana, where the All African Games are supposed to be hosted in 2023. Nigerian grounds men are the ones working on them.”
However, he said, the pitches in Abuja among other things will give the home players a better chance since they are already well adjusted to the quality of the Ovals form their camping at other facility of that standard in other parts of the country.
A number of the players are based in Edo state and plays at the Benin turfs while their recent camping was at the TBS Oval in Lagos.
The ICC Men’s cricket World Cup Africa Division 2 Qualifier will run on the twin ovals at the MKO Abiola Stadium, Package B in Abuja between September 26th and October 9th as the event will feature Kenya, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Ghana, Mozambique, Botswana and host Nigeria.