Head Coach and High-Performance Manager of Nigeria’s Cricket Team, Asanka Gurusinha, has said the series of defeats that the national male team has undergone in the ongoing Pearl of Africa T20 series in Uganda is good for the team.
The Sri-Lankan former Cricket World Cup winner said this as the team rounded up preparation to engage Kenya and Uganda in the last two final matches of the ongoing tournament on Tuesday.
“They are living up to our expectations. The team is a work in progress. It is very wrong to judge them by their performance here, and more importantly, the two teams they are playing are way above Nigeria’s level in cricket ranking.
“Nigeria’s team has not played a high-level cricket game since 2019 at the T20 World Cup and this exposure helps the team to shake up the rust especially when the team has been reshuffled with fresh players brought on board.” He added.
Nigeria’s youthful side whose core is made up of a vast number of the players that executed the U-19 World Cup matches in 2020 for the country in South Africa, has not won any of the four matches it has played so far.
The Pearl of Africa T20 Series, also known as ‘Tri Series’ is one of the shape up tours of the National Men’s Cricket Team ahead do the ICC Men’s T20 African Qualifier billed for November 2021 in Rwanda.
Nigeria’s Captain, Joshua Ayannaike, said, “the exposure of the team has been eye-opening, we have a lot of take-home from here and while the event is yet to be rounded-off we have seen visible impact already as the team has progressed in performance as the game progressed.
“We still have two encounters left with these teams and I am sure there are a number of things we can implement from our learning on the spot, but more importantly, our training regimen and future matches ahead of the Qualifiers in Kigali in November”
Of the three-team at the Tri-Series, Kenya is the best ranked on the ICC T20 ranking at the 25th spot. Uganda is ranked 33rd while Nigeria is presently 36th on the log.
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