The Honourable Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare has admitted that cricket deserves another look-in for next month’s National Sports Festival, Delta 2022.
Dare dropped this hint during the closing ceremony of the just concluded, ICC Africa Under 19 Division 2 World Cup Qualifier held at the Twin Cricket Ovals of the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja.
He said: “With the quality of facility they have now and the level of organization that was put up at this quality continental event, I believe Cricket should be reconsidered for the forthcoming National Sports Festival in Asaba, Delta State.”
His statement is against the backdrop of the sport’s exclusion from the festival after the Local Organising Committee pruned the sports to be competed for by the thirty-six states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
“Cricket has been part of past festivals and we have had more than 24 states preparing to send teams for this year’s event before their enthusiasm got deflated by the exclusion,” said Taiwo Oriss, Secretary-General of the Nigeria Cricket federation.
Oriss said while the initial exclusion might have been justifiably technical, the new light thrown on the sport’s inclusion by the Minister is welcoming, given the works that the board of the Cricket Federation has put to grassroots development and the international recognition received of late.
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“The Minister was very pleased with the way the Federation conducted the Division 2 Qualifier, the quality of our facility and more importantly performance of our team in the event. All these elements including the interactions with some representation of the International Cricket Council’s officials earned us this.”
Despite the pronouncement, the minister however said, the final ratification is still subject to the department in the ministry that is saddled with the festival organization. He assures that the discussion for reconsidering Cricket inclusion in the game will definitely be done on the strength of what he experienced at the event and recent happenings around the game.
A forthnight ago, the Minister hosted, William Glenwright, the International Cricket Council’s Global Development Manager and Patricia Karambami, ICC Development Manager, Africa who were on a tour of two states(Lagos and Edo) and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
Their visit was spurred by Nigeria winning the ICC’s 2022 Global Cricket for Social Good award in July with the Cricket project deployment in IDP camp in Edo State.