Nigeria’s Under-19 Cricket Team, the Junior Yellow Greens, have begun their quest to qualify for the ICC World Cup in 2024 after jetting out of the country on Monday, May 22, for preparations.
The youngsters, who will be in Tanzania two months from now, have been on the rise following their promotion from division 2 to division 1 at the Abuja Games in October 2022, when they finished above West African neighbours Sierra Leone and a place behind Kenya. They will be aiming to pick the only available ticket in the African qualifiers in July with the hopes of making it to Sri Lanka for the World Cup.
The Nigerian team, with the support of the Nigeria Cricket Federation, has engaged in a series of high-level preparation activities to ensure they are ready for the upcoming Division 1 qualifiers. They have been regularly participating in training camps set up in Benin and the nation’s capital, Abuja, under the tutelage of the technical crew of the NCF, spearheaded by Steve Tikolo, a Kenyan cricket legend and now the senior men’s coach and the federation’s high performance manager.
The Junior Yellow Greens, dubbed the Dream Team 3, are aiming to replicate the history made by two other under-19 teams. In 2019, Nigeria qualified for the ICC Under-19 World Cupand participated in the tournament that was held in South Africa in January 2020.
Following its plan to ensure the team led by the trio of Daniel Gim (coach), Tamuno John (assistant coach), and Joseph Oche Onoja (team manager) will excel at the qualifiers and subsequently secure a berth at the World Cup, the NCF has decided to expose the young players to the best of facilities and training environment by sending them on international tours around the world.
The Junior Yellow Greens will be experiencing their first tour outside the continent, with India said to be the preferred destination for camping. They are expected to engage in numerous high-performance training sessions and compete in friendly matches against selected franchise teams in Mumbai within a two-week period before returning to Nigeria.
The Dream Team 3 is also expected to visit Rwanda with the hopes of acclimatising to the East African weather that they will be facing in Tanzania for the all-important qualifiers.
Nigeria’s U-19 team will face familiar foes like Uganda, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Namibia in a winner-take-all competition in July.
