By Gracious Akujobi The Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF) said on Friday that it had relocated its Male Under-19 camp from Ilorin Kwara, to Abuja, over logistics.
Prompt News recalls that the U-19 cricket team was scheduled to begin camping this weekend in Ilorin, Kwara, in preparation for the Africa Under-19 Championship in Tanzania.
Head Media Unit of NCF, Musa Ehizoje, said the relocation became necessary as some of the players were yet to renew their international passports and needed to be monitored while they do so.
He said it was essential for the Federation to supervise the players’ acquisition of their passports in order not to disorganise the camp, adding that it will be difficult to coordinate the visas procurement in Abuja if the players were camped in Ilorin.
“We discovered that some of these players don’t have their international passports ready. So, we decided that it will be better to have the camp in Abuja to enable them get it here and to enable us to take them and their passports to the embassy for visa procurement.
“It will be difficult to coordinate the passport acquisition and the visas procurement if we decide to shuttle leave the camp in Ilorin and shuttle to Abuja.
“We just said instead of that let us do the camping in Abuja; so it was a last minute decision” he explained.
The U-19 cricket team will be in camp from January 18 – 26 when it’s expected to depart for Dubai for a training tour in preparation for the African championship.
