No shortcuts to Nigeria’s cricket success – Akpata

Following Nigeria’s historic outing at the 2025 ICC U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup in Malaysia, the president of the Nigeria Cricket Federation, Uyi Akpata, talks about the ambition of the board to further develop the  game in the country, in this interview with ABIODUN ADEWALE

The U-19 women’s team are back from Malaysia where they stunned the world at the ICC U-19 Women’s World Cup. Where does their performance put Nigeria in the global picture of cricket?

As you can see, most Nigerians who followed the girls for about two weeks in Malaysia are super excited and proud of what they have done for themselves, their families, the NCF and more importantly the country at large. We redefined expectations as we went along and these girls deserve all the accolades they are getting. Having said that, this is not just happening by chance, it is four years in the making. We have a development plan where most of these girls started through secondary school competitions, then the National Youth Games and the PwC U-17 National Championships. So, at the end of the day, it’s been strategic in terms of where we position them to be. Seven of them had played for the senior team and that is because we have identified and continue to groom them. The fact that we have high-performance facilities in place shows that we will continue to have that pipeline of talent. Amazingly, a few of them will still participate in the next tournament so there is a huge pipeline. We are excited that the global cricket world has recognised us and we need to up our game to make sure the girls remain at high level for the next championship or graduating to the main senior team.

The composition of the team to the backroom staff is striking, in the sense that they showed a lot of bonding. What was the composition like especially the introduction of Kenyan coach Sarah Bhakita and former captain of the senior team Blessing Etim?

This is an icing on the cake and we are still baking the cake. Most people are surprised but we are not. The girls have been together for long enough and about two or three years ago we went to the Kwibuka tournament in Rwanda, Sarah had played one of the matches against Kenya and I watched her play. At the end of the match, I went to her and told her I wanted her to come to Nigeria. I didn’t know she was going to retire then. Six months later, she was here. I saw the way in which she was playing that game and I felt that the ladies needed someone who could be a mentor, mother figure and everything. Two years before now, I had seen that combination of Sarah and Blessing working on this team with coach Theophilus supporting them and we also have a team manager who is an example of what a team manager should be.

Now, we have played two World Cups in five years, both at the U-19 level. What has been the driving force for the federation?

We have very high standards and we have made modest achievements but we still have a long way to go. Our five pillars of development have been; one to grow the game of cricket in Nigeria. We set a target of reaching 500,000 kids every year and the second is to continue to have state-of-the-art facilities every year. Before we couldn’t boast of any facilities but now we are hosting international tournaments in Lagos and Abuja. Another pillar is the quality of our players and coaches. We don’t want any shortcuts to success if not I would go to the USA and Australia and we would see Nigerians playing cricket there but ours have to be a sustainable grassroots development and to create a general pathway for our people here. The fourth aspect of our strategy is commercial success. The right money has to come in and we are not lazy about it by asking the government to fund us. Government creates the right environment but we need to partner with sponsors. Then we want to have continuous interaction with key stakeholders in terms of governance structure.

Following the World Cup success, every country would want to play Nigeria now. How ready is the federation to take on the logistics of the numerous competitions that are potentially on the way?

We are ready. We thought we would be where we are now in 2028 and it just means we should go back and refresh our strategy and reposition. The third part of our five pillars is on strategic partnership. Most people are now interested in the game and hopefully, we will have commercial partners who will give us the right resources so we will put the investment in the right places. For us, we are excited about that journey, if the girls can take on any team; we as a board are bold enough to take on the challenges ahead to provide the platform that they need to thrive.

There have been so many gains for women’s cricket in the last five years. What are the efforts that are being put to make sure we replicate that in the men’s game as well?

If we are to say where we have made the largest gains in the last five years, it’s in female cricket. That opportunity to play regularly is very instrumental. The most important thing is for us to stay competitive. Unlike football where you see about five African countries trying to make the World Cup but in cricket, it’s just one. So, everyone is competing for that single slot but can you remain competitive? Nigeria has remained competitive since and what we want to do this year is play enough to be in division one and also improve our rankings by this time next year.  It’s a process, we will be on track for the men’s U-19 World Cup qualifier by March and I want to believe we will qualify. In the shortest period, the senior team will be playing the T20 World Cup even if we don’t make the ODI but that is a matter of time too.

The year 2024 was quite big for Nigerian cricket and we have started 2025 on a bright note already. What more can we look forward to?

The year 2024 was an eventful one for us from the global picture. It was for us a year of consolidation as most of our plans were coming together. Both our male and female national teams were at the African Games where the Yellow Greens beat Namibia for the first time, although we didn’t win a medal there we put everyone on notice. In 2024, we decided it was time to go high-performance and it started with the female team winning a bronze medal at the African Games. We have been deliberate in terms of the coaches we have, the high-performance centres and training, the PwC U-17 National Championships in the past five years and it’s just all of these investments coming through now and we are happy as a board that these are happening. For me, that’s not the end. We have not reached the height and what I see is that we have built that foundation and it’s that foundation that we will be building real success on in 2025 and beyond.

So, what are the plans for 2025?

We have six targets. For the female team, we want to break into the top 20 in the world and the top 25 in the world for the male so that we can go and play in the Challenge League where we can play the ODI, that’s a different status. We also want to bring in more facilities. We are hosting a tournament in March, and creating the right atmosphere for people to have tournaments. We are going to conclude with Kaduna State to finish the Kaduna Oval and also do so in each of the geo-political zones. That is a key area for us, focusing on equipment, facilities and high-performance centres. We are also going to strengthen our female cricket more. We are known for that and we launched a refreshed strategy in October last year the aim is to have new 1,000,000 girls into the game in the next four or five years. It’s part of aligning with the International Cricket Council’s global strategy. One of the key things again is that we now have a brand we can sell so we are going commercial. Let people also recognise that they can invest in the cricket brand. Before the World Cup, we got two requests from international companies including one in Costa Rica saying they want to have their names on our outfit. But I paused and thought I’d rather prefer a Nigerian brand. That’s what these girls have done.

What are the existing and new tournaments to have more games for all the national teams?

We know that there is a major female league that takes place every February which is the South-South female league. We are going to expand that to be like a national female league for an opportunity to play regularly. By March in Abuja, we have the invitational where we will have other countries join us and then we move to the Kwibuka in Rwanda. So, they will be active and there is specific high-performance training for individuals so they can play all year round when it comes to the November qualifiers for the male team, just watch out for us. Hopefully, we will also launch the Nigerian Super League this year as well.