Nigerian cricketers hit Malaysia March 3

A 17-man Nigerian Cricket contingent will on March 3 join other countries seeking for passage into International Cricket Council  (ICC) Division 4 to square up at the ICC Division 5 League which gets underway as from March 6.
Before moving to the venue of the tournament which is slated to last for eight days, Nigerian Cricketers who went beyond expectations to qualify to play at Division 5 will proceed to Sri Lanka for a ten-day training tour.
Disclosing this to Blueprint Sports at the team’s training camp in Abuja, president of Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF), Chief Emeka Onyeama, said with the level of exposure which cricket players have had in recent times, nothing will stop them from moving on.
Among the countries battling to step up to play at Division 4 and ultimately qualify for 2019 Cricket World Cup are host Malaysia, Cayman Island, Guernsey, Tanzania, Jersey and Nigeria. At the end, only two finalists will proceed to the next division.
However, NCF President Chief Onyeama maintained: “We want to do everything possible to see that cricket is sustained in Nigeria. Already, the Nigerian Embassy is providing us with the platform by arranging with the teams that our own team could play to enable them prepare well.
“And we want to use this medium to appeal to National Sports Commission (NSC) to give us full support more than ever before.”
For NCF technical director, Mr Olisa Egwuatu “Though we don’t have the required facilities on the ranking but we are going to qualify because we have the skill and desire. Our strength is our low profile and surprise element.”
Chairman of NCF media and publicity committee, Kayode Adeniyi explained that the federation has line up numerous developmental programmes to further popularize cricket in Nigeria.