With Mike Adeyemi
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two opposing teams of eleven players each on a cricket field, at the centre of the field sits a 20-metre rectangular strip with a target at each end called the wicket (a set of three wooden stumps upon which two bails sit).
The first ever international cricket game was staged in Lagos while the nation was yet under colonial rule by the British on the 25th of May 1904, with the Nigerian team playing as representatives of Lagos Colony against the Gold Coast Colony (now Ghana).
Rather than grow to become a huge part of the nationโs everyday activity like football, cricket has been relegated to the background alongside other sports we only often see played in the academic scenes.
The game of Cricket has been into exile in the last decade due to the lack of proper management from sports authorities and inactivity of the game within the state.
However, since the organization of school cricket initiative in 2003 and a DSTV Mass Clinic in 2004, the game has seen its rise to prominence gradually creating pathways for developmental programs and bringing honour to the state.
In 2004, Kwara State surprised the Cricket community with their second place finish at the National Men Cricket Championship in Abuja after incredible performance in Junior and Senior categories.
The achievement was followed by series of laurels which include a third place finish in two National Youth Games along with winning the Junior Category in North Central Zone four times from 2014-2017.
After dominating various competitions in the North Central zone, the state of Harmony is currently the best in developing young players in the zone.
Although the state dominates competitions within the zone, Kwara State also produced players in both male and female categories for the National teams with Abolarin AbdulRasheed currently with the national U19 side preparing for the World U19 Cricket World Cup in South Africa.
Nigeria are placed in Group D alongside ย alongside top countries such as Australia, England and West Indies and will be playing in Kimberly.
Due to the failure of the male team in UAE, the team has been disbanded and some talented players from the U19 squad are called up to beef up the squad in which Kwara state Abolarin will be part for the Africa qualifiers.
The country’s Men Cricket team will be participating at the Africa Cricket Association ACA T20 Africa Cup in Nairobi with other Africa countries like, Bostwana, Cameroon, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique and Uganda and host, Kenya.
Other players who have featured for the State and are representing the country in different categories are, Samuel Oginniran, AbdulRasheed Abolarin, Taiye and Kehinde AbdulKadir, Samson Rachel.
