In Lagos, Nigeria Wins First West African Cricket Trophy

The Yellow-Green, Nigeria’s men’s cricket team, won every one of their ten matches to accomplish a perfect sweep in the first West African Trophy, which was held on Sunday at Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos.

They defeated Rwanda by 17 runs on Sunday, their fourth victory in the twenty-match series that began on Wednesday, October 4, 2023, over the East African team.

Nigeria has defeated Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Rwanda in her round-robin matches, earning her a spot in the West Africa Trophy finals.

In the tenth round, Nigeria, with eighteen points from four matches, was matched against Rwanda, who had the second-highest point total of eight. Despite having a lower Net Run Rate, Ghana also recorded four victories. Ghana then faced Sierra Leone, who had only won once in nine games for the third and fourth classification rounds, in the match for third place.

On the final day of the West Africa Trophy, Sierra Leone defeated Ghana by six wickets in the opening game. Nigeria then secured the Tournament Trophy with their eleventh victory.

The Nigeria Cricket Federation President declared, “It’s a very successful experiment.” We are happy to have the national team, whose outstanding performance complemented all of our hard work.

He continued by saying that the West Africa Trophy was helpful in that regard. The Federation had planned multiple venues to showcase the national teams, including organizing a significant domestic competition.

We would want to express our gratitude to all of our partners, which include Nigeria Breweries, Dafabet, Sparkle, and the Lagos State government. We hope to involve more of our corporate partners in the initiative to spread cricket throughout Nigeria,” he continued.

With 17 wickets, Isaac Okpe of Nigeria won both the bowler of the tournament and the Most Valuable Player award. With 229 runs in 10 games, Sulaimon Runsewe—another Nigerian—won the batter of the tournament award. In ten games, he won the outfield award as well with nine dismissals.