NCF targets to take kids off streets
Uyi Akpata, the President of Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF), says one of the federation's goals is to take kids off the streets through the sport.
Akpata who stated this on Thursday in Abuja at the ongoing third edition of Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) National Under-17 Cricket Championship also said they were aiming at providing employment opportunities.
He added that the tournament holding at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in was part of the federation's strategic imperatives, focusing on promoting the game at all levels.
"This event is part of the five strategic imperatives the NCF is building its development on.
"These are: promotion of the game at all levels, upgrading infrastructure, building strategic partnerships, training and retraining of staffs and players and ensuring corporate governance.
"These imperatives will help take kids off the streets and provide employment to a lot of young people.
"In essence, this tournament is giving kids hope that they can aspire and dream, to any length," Akpata said.
The NCF president also stated that the tournament was part of the federation's goal to bring in over 250,000 new entrants to the sport yearly.
"I have said it before, that our goal is to pull in over 250,000 kids into the game this year and we have officers in all the 36 states, fully equipped to get that going.
"This Under-17 finals is a product of the work these officers have been doing in the past 12 months.
"Recruitment and training at each geo-political zone were conducted and these climaxed to raise over 784 players, who qualified to take part in the regional events across the geo-political zones, before the finals here in Abuja," he added.
Supreme reports that the ongoing event in Abuja had begun with zonal qualifiers two weeks ago.
State teams in each geo-political zone had then converged at a location for the preliminaries.
The best players from each state were later selected to present a team for each zone in the finals in Abuja.
The tournament which began on Wednesday is expected to end on Sunday.
