Cricket: Nigeria targets first KwibukaT20 title win
Leke Oyede, coach of Nigeria’s Senior Women Cricket team, on Wednesday, said the team targets their first title win at the KwibukaT20 Women’s tournament in Rwanda.
Oyede told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that the team was undergoing intensive training for the event billed for June 10 to June 19 in Kigali.
Following the team’s victory at the Nigeria Women’s T20l tournament in Lagos in March, Oyede is confident that the team would bring home the title.
“We have had series of camping ahead of the tournament since April, but we began intensive camp on Friday in Benin.
“The mood in the camp is great and we look forward to doing better than our previous outing-where we finished fifth among eight teams.
“Now, only five teams will participate and we have looked at the strength and weaknesses of the teams and believe that this could be our chance at the title.
“Our biggest threat would be a team like Uganda, who are two-time winners of the event, but of course, we will not underrate or overrate any team, but will take it one game at a time, “Oyede said.
The erstwhile cricketer, however admitted that more needs to be done to improve the batting strength of the team in order to achieve their target.
“At the moment, we are satisfied with the bowling department of the team.
“Our bowling has always been in top form and you get lots of chances to correct whatever errors you make as a bowler but a batter gets one chance.
“So, we are working to see that our batting has a bit of force. We want the opening batters to be able to do most of the job and not put pressure on the tailenders.
“We have since been working on the batters and there’s a lot of improvement,” he said.
“The coach also added that the technical crew will announce its 14-player squad and two stand-by on Thursday.
“The team plans to leave for Lagos on June 7 before traveling to Kigali two days later,“he said.
NAN reports that this will be Nigeria’s third consecutive appearance at the event and will face hosts Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Botswana.
The annual tournament, which is in its ninth edition, is in commemoration of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda. (NAN)
