NCF Targets More Players in Akwa Ibom

President of the Nigeria Cricket Federation, Uyi Akpata, has said the body is looking forward to discovering more cricket players in Akwa Ibom State after the commissioning of a new cricket practice net at the playground of Community Secondary Commercial School, Ibiaku Itam, along Calabar-Itu Road, Uyo, on Friday.

Akpata led the team of International Cricket Council and Cricket South Africa, who were also in the country to be part of the 2-day ICC men’s World Cup trophy tour which was held last week in Abuja and Lagos, to tour and commission the new facilities.

During the visit, Akpata extolled the contributions of Akwa Ibom cricket players who had risen from playing at the grassroots level to the female national team.

“When ICC officials wanted to visit Nigeria and said we must deliberately go somewhere else outside Lagos and Abuja, who else gives us that credibility of our own agenda especially as it relates to the diversity agenda of cricket other than Akwa Ibom State. Akwa Ibom has consistently over the last ten years been the biggest pipeline for our female national team. So, in the last 10 years, I can’t remember where there has been endless cricket and four players consistent in the national team”, he said.

The cricket practice net construction was sponsored by PET Foundation which has the wife of the NCF president on the foundation board as chairman.