THE HISTORY OF CRICKET GAME IN NIGERIA

Cricket is not a new sport in Nigeria, one can game it is as old as football. Cricket was introduced to Nigeria by the British in the 19^th century, after which the first ever international cricket game was played in Lagos. The competition took place between Lagos Colony and Gold Colony, but Gold colony was able to win the game with 22 runs margin.

The game immediately becomes an annual event featuring multi-racial participants in its maiden years. In its fourth year, the game recorded a full-on European-only participation, and in the following year Africa started hers.

Following Nigeria’s independence in 1960, you would think cricket would go with the British, but Nigerians had already found a love for the game, hence matches were staged against other African countries like Sierra Leone and the Gambia from 1964.

Until 1970, cricket was Nigeria’s major sport, but soon after football began finding its way into the hearts of the nation’s elites and with that came a decline in cricket; both in organization and interest in the game.

However, Nigeria was considered a nation given to the game of cricket, taking most positions in the West African cricket team that took part in the ICC Trophy Tournaments in 1982 and 1997.

Even after the West African Cricket Conference ceased to exist in 2002, Nigeria became an ICC associate member in the same year and featured in the 2002 Africa Cup in Zambia – finishing fourth in the group after a win against Malawi.

Two years later, the Nigerian team finished 5^th in the Africa Cricket Association Championships with a single win in the tournament against last placed Tanzania, thus failing to qualify for the 2005 ICC Trophy.

Presently, the game of cricket is now very popular in Nigeria, but it still needs a lot of improvement in order to measure up to the world’s standard.

Author: Nairasportsbet

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Created on Feb 4th 2019 14:15. Viewed 283 times.

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