BY JACOB AJOM

President of the Nigeria Cricket Federation, Kwesi Sagoe has heaped praises on the country’s senior national team despite its failure to retain its place in ICC World Cricket League Division 6.

Speaking on the opening day of the 2011/2012 season at a media parley at the NCF secretariat Saturday, Sagoe who doubles as Chairman of the African Cricket Association said in view of the huge financial demands required of the federation hindered the team’s preparation for the tournament in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The team could not go on a pre-tournament training tour. Sagoe said, “We had invested so much on the first three tournaments that we ran out of steam financially. We lacked the fund to do that,” adding that the weather could have caused additional problems for the team. “You could see that the results kept improving as the competition wore on. It was an indication that the players were gradually getting used to the weather,” he stressed.

Despite their relegation to division 7, Sagoe insisted that the national team was not disgraced in Malaysia. “We drew a lot of positives from participating in the tournament. Our defeats were marginal and we were able to improve by one notch in our global ranking,” explaining, “Nigeria has gone up from 38 to 37th in the ICC ODI ranking. In Africa, we are ranked 5th behind Kenya, Namibia, Uganda and Tanzania. In T/20 we are 4th in Africa and 7th in U-17 category.”

Looking back on the activities of the committee, the NCF boss confessed that “the marketing committee has not been able to function very well. We need to look into that soon.”

However, the NCF President praised the effort of the federation that ensured Nigeria never missed any international engagement throughout the out gone season. “For the first time in the history of Nigeria cricket, the country’s national team attended four tournaments. This was a very heavy burden on the federation’s resources,” Sagoe said.