Ogun State Cricket Association targets international cricket competitions to maintain the facility gains after NSF.

 

The leadership of the Ogun State Cricket Association have expressed delight with the presence of the sport at the ongoing 22nd National Sports Festival despite initial struggles to put facilities in place at the Cricket ground of the MKO Sports Complex in Kuto Abeokuta, and readiness to utilize the facility to avoid decay even after the festival with constant hosting of cricket competitions after the festival.

The association led by the leadership of chairman Mr Oludare Kuforiji (FCA) made this known on the opening day of cricket at the festival on Tuesday 20 May, when Team Ogun's male team faced Team Kaduna in the first of the two games.

Although the match between Ogun and Kaduna was decided on technical grounds with Kaduna winning by 13 runs after rain delay that stopped the match. Inspite of the result, Mr Oludare expressed delight with the preparation and facilities upgrades which he termed a "long journey".

The chairman explained that Ogun state created a first of it's kind in Nigeria to have two standard cricket pitches on the same ground side by side and a third ground which allows for three simultaneous cricket games during the festival.

"We used to have just one cricket pitch in Abeokuta, then we had the knowledge that we had to make available at least two playing fields so that we can have matches going on concurrently and that gave birth to the thought of having the second pitch. We are grateful that we are able to put this together because it's the first of it's type to put together two standard cricket pitches side by side in Nigeria and there's a third pitch just a three-minute trek from here" Dare Kuforiji said.

He appreciated the leadership of the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF), under the leadership of President Uyi Akpata for their support while lauding association members for their efforts as well. The facilities includes three playing surfaces, standard training net, an auditorium and new access route.

Meanwhile, first vice chairman of the Ogun State Cricket Association, Engineer Kehinde Osikoya revealed delight to see cricket in action in Kuto and that the association is determined to keep facilities in playable conditions and bring in local and international cricket competitions after the festival.

"The Ogun state cricket association is determined that after the festival, we continue keep this place in playable conditions, we intend to change them to turf pitches because at the moment we are playing on mat, and we are hoping that very soon it becomes turf and we are hoping to bringing local and even international matches here and to that end we are going to set up a committee at the end of the festival for the maintenance of the facility and as you can see, these are very modern facility and we are proud, there's nothing lacking." Osikoya said.

He also mentioned that a committee has been set up to ensure the effective utilization of the facility for local and international competitions in order to maintain Ogun State's status as a Cricket playing state and also by going into grassroot development of the sport by reactivating two major grassroot competitions.