The Honorable Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare has commended the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF) for the excellent organisation of the just concluded ICC Under 19 Men Africa Division 2 World Cup Qualifier held at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja in Abuja.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the qualifier on Saturday, Dare praised the Nigeria Cricket Federation for being a focused and strategic federation that is carrying out the vision of government for sports development to the letter.

He said the pace and the dedication of the NCF to youth development and facility upgrade is commendable, stating particularly that he is impressed with the investment in and upgrade of the twin cricket ovals at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja.

His words: “The facility here and what it means to sports development, especially cricket is a major win for the country and I commend the Nigeria Cricket Federation for the vision and the investment. I also commend the ICC for the quality of administration and the trust in Nigeria to host this event. We look forward to working with them on the development of the game in Nigeria.”

The Minister encouraged the Nigerian U19 team who lost the keenly contested final of the qualifier to Kenya to bounce back from the loss and put the lessons learnt from it to good use during next year’s Division 1 World Cup playoffs in South Africa.

Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone will join Uganda, Tanzania and Namibia in next year’s U19 Cricket World Cup playoffs in South Africa.