Nigeria’s U-19 female cricket team have started preparations ahead of the 2025 International Cricket Council Women’s U-19 World Cup qualifiers, which will be played in Rwanda in August, according to reports.
Handled by a former Kenya International, Sarah Bhakita, the first phase of the team’s camping commenced in Ibadan last week and will continue at the high-performance centre in Benin City in May.
Bhakita is assisted by former Female Yellow Greens captain, Blessing Etim, who retired after leading the senior team to a historic bronze medal win at the 2023 African Games in Ghana, while the women’s senior national team coach, Leke Oyede will also work with the team.
According to coach Oyede, the team is currently made up of about 48 players who have grown through the ranks of youth programmes in recent times. The list is also expected to be pruned to 25 as their camping exercises progress before the final 18-player list is released for the qualifiers.
“We have started training in earnest and the camping will go on till around July. The Ibadan camp has just closed and we will be proceeding to Benin next. Around that July, the girls will either finalise their preparations with an intensive training camp in Lagos or a training tour outside Nigeria,” Oyede said.
Nigeria did not qualify for the last edition of the tournament in South Africa and thus will be aiming to change that this time around, especially with the progress the country has made in women’s cricket since the last qualifiers in 2022.
The 2025 World Cup which will be played in Malaysia and Thailand is the second edition of the tournament. South Africa hosted the maiden edition which was won by India in 2023.
Olaitan Ibrahim