Nigeria national cricket team


The Nigeria national cricket team is the team that represents the country of Nigeria in international cricket. Cricket has been played in the country since the late 19th century, and the national team played their first match in 1904, when a team representing the Lagos Colony played the Gold Coast Colony. The Nigeria Cricket Association has been an associate member of the International Cricket Council since 2002.
In April 2018, the ICC decided to grant full Twenty20 International status to all its members. Therefore, all Twenty20 matches played between Nigeria and other ICC members after 1 January 2019 will be a full T20I. Nigeria's first T20I match was against Kenya on 20 May 2019, after finishing second in the North-Western sub-region qualification group, advancing to the Regional Final of the 2018–19 ICC World Twenty20 Africa Qualifier tournament.
In July 2019, the ICC suspended Zimbabwe Cricket, with the team barred from taking part in ICC events. As a result of their suspension, the ICC confirmed that Nigeria would replace them in the 2019 ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier tournament.

History

Early years

Cricket has been played in Nigeria since the late 19th century when the game was introduced by the British. Contacts between the administration in Lagos and their counterparts in Gold Coast led to an international on 25 May 1904, the Gold Coast winning by 22 runs.
The match became an annual fixture and for the first three matches was multi-racial. The fourth fixture in December 1906 was for Europeans only, and the African population started their own annual fixture in 1907. Internationals stopped for the First World War, and did not restart until the mid-1920s.
Between the two world wars, cricket began to become more formally organised in the country with two cricket associations for the Europeans and Africans being formed in 1932 and 1933 respectively. First-class cricketers from England began to appear in the annual matches against Gold Coast, and the 1939 match, the last before World War II ended in a 58 run win for Gold Coast.
Matches resumed after the war with a five-day match in Lagos in 1947 which ended in a draw. The 1949 match went the way of the Gold Coast. As the number of Europeans working in the country reduced, the quality of the African players increased and cricket began to be organised on multi-racial lines in 1956.

Post independence

Following Nigeria's independence in 1960, there was much interest in cricket. Annual matches against Sierra Leone and The Gambia began in 1964, and were evenly contested until the late 1970s, when football began to become more popular in the country. Cricket began a process of decline, and when Tanzania toured in 1974, Nigeria lost two of the three matches and drew the other. They also lost heavily to the MCC in 1976. Internal problems with both the Nigeria Cricket Association and in Nigeria itself led to a decline in standards, though Nigeria formed a majority of the players on the West Africa cricket team that became an ICC associate member in 1976.
The West Africa team took part in the ICC Trophy tournaments of 1982 and 1997 before withdrawing from the 2001 tournament in Ontario. Nigeria still continued to play on their own on occasion, though they sometimes withdrew from tournaments, as at the 1998 Africa Cricket Association Championship. The West African Cricket Conference ceased to exist in 2002, and Nigeria became an associate member of the ICC in their own right the same year.

ICC membership

Nigeria's first tournament after becoming an ICC member on their own was the 2002 Africa Cup in Zambia. Nigeria finished fourth in their group after their only win of the tournament against Malawi. They finished 5th in the Africa Cricket Association Championships in 2004, their only win coming against last placed Tanzania, thus failing to qualify for the 2005 ICC Trophy.
In August 2006, Nigeria took part in Division Two of the World Cricket League Africa Region in Tanzania, finishing last. This originally relegated them to Division Three, though they are not playing in that tournament in 2008. They won the North West Africa Championship in 2007 and 2008.
Nigeria are played in Division Two of the World Cricket League Africa Region in 2008 and came second hence qualifying for 2009 ICC World Cricket League Division Seven. They came 3rd in the tournament thus remaining in the division.
In May 2011 Nigeria participated in the 2011 ICC World Cricket League Division Seven in Botswana. Nigeria came second in tournament this qualifying for 2011 ICC World Cricket League Division Six. Then the team went to South Africa in May 2011 to participate in 2011 ICC Africa Division Two en route to qualification of 2012 ICC World Twenty20. They won the tournament and qualified for 2011 ICC Africa Division One.
In August 2018, they were included in the 2018 Africa T20 Cup tournament.

Grounds

The 2,000-capacity Tafawa Balewa Square Oval in Lagos is the largest cricket stadium in Nigeria.

Tournament history

World Cup

International Match Summary — Nigeria

Twenty20 International

Most T20I runs for Nigeria
PlayerRunsAverageCareer span
Chimezie Onwuzulike12215.252019–2019
Ademola Onikoyi11914.872019–2019
Sesan Adedeji8922.252019–2019
Isaac Okpe8410.502019–2019
Sulaimon Runsewe7414.802019–2019

Most T20I wickets for Nigeria
PlayerWicketsAverageCareer span
Sylvester Okpe615.662019–2019
Vincent Adewoye622.502019–2019
Chima Akachukwu625.162019–2019
Isaac Okpe631.342019–2019
Isaac Danladi413.002019–2019

T20I record versus other nations
Records complete to T20I #980. Last updated 27 October 2019.

World Cricket League records

Performances by Nigerian cricketers in World Cricket League since 2009
Highest Scores+
Dotun Olatunji – 127 vs Ghana at BCA Oval No. 1, Gaborone on 7 April 2013
Dotun Olatunji – 125* vs Botswana at BCA Oval No. 2, Gaborone on 9 April 2013
Olajide Bejide – 106 vs Tanzania at Royal Selangor Club, Kuala Lumpur on 13 March 2014
Segun Olayinka – 94* vs Argentina at Grainville, St Saviour on 28 July 2013
Endurance Ofem – 90 vs Cayman Islands at Kinrara Academy Oval, Kuala Lumpur on 9 March 2014
Best bowling figures
Oluseye Olympio – 6/23 vs Argentina at Grainville, St Saviour on 28 July 2013
Saeed Akolade – 6/27 vs Bahrain at Farmers CC, St Martin on 25 July 2013
Joshua Ogunlola – 5/28 vs Botswana at BCA Oval No. 2, Gaborone on 9 April 2013
Joshua Ogunlola – 5/34 vs Germany at BCA Oval No. 2, Gaborone on 12 April 2013
Olajide Bejide – 4/20 vs Kuwait at BCA Oval No. 1, Gaborone on 8 May 2011
The following list contains the 14 players in Nigeria's squad for the final round of 2018–19 ICC T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier taking place in Uganda in May, 2019.
The following players have represented Nigeria internationally and also played first-class cricket: