The Nigeria Under 19 team left the shores of the country on 8th of December 2019 for South Africa where that have been in a high performance center in Pretoria, as part of preparation for the world cup scheduled for to take place from January 17th to February 9th 2020 in South Africa.
The long trek to the world cup began 18 months ago where it all started in Potchefstroom, South Africa when Nigeria conquered Africa division 2 to qualify for division 1. In March 2019, Nigeria made history by defeating Namibia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Sierra Leone. Since then, preparations have been intensified in the camp of the Junior Yellow Greens at home seeing them play series of friendly matches against franchise teams.
Thrills and excitement for the Junior Yellow Greens at the high performance camp in Pretoria when they got the chance to meet with their idols in the Proteas team. Special moments with the players when the captain of the South African Senior Men’s team Faf Duplesis and other Proteas member visited the camp to have a chat with the players.
According to Nigeria Bating prodigy, Elijah Olaleye, ‘’Meeting Faf Duplesis was a dream come true and getting to chat with him just raised my level of confidence, I have learnt so much already from just speaking with him and some tips he gave me will definitely help me not just during the world cup, but also in my entire career going forward’’. Other members of the Protea team present were Quinton de kock and Kagiso Rabada.
The Junior Yellow Greens will continue their preparations for the world cup by participating in the Cubs week. The Cubs week is an age grade franchise tournament in South Africa that showcases the next generation of cricketers for the country. However, Nigeria will be participating as a team. The only other country to participate as a team is Namibia. Nigeria is drawn in pool B alongside Dolphins, Lions and Titans.
Nigeria Fixtures for the Cubs week
04-01-2020
Dolphins vs Nigeria
05-01-2020
Nigeria vs Lions
06-01-2020
Titans vs Nigeria
Nigeria is schedule to play against Pakistan on the 12th and South Africa on the 14th of January respectively in their world cup warm up matches before the opening world cup fixtures against Australia on the 20th of January 2019.
Ends.