BEVERLY HILLS, March 01, (THEWILL) – On Thursday, February 25, the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF) celebrated the 80th birthday anniversary of Professor Olajide Bademosi, described as an exemplary model of who a complete athlete should be on and off the pitch.
In highlighting the reason for the flowery compliments that attended the celebration of the life of one of Nigeria’s foremost pacesetters in cricket, the NCF, through its current president Professor Yahaya Ukwenya urged budding cricket players to emulate the life of dedication and professionalism to the game demonstrated through Bademosi’s life.
In a country where every other sporting activity pales into near invisibility under the bright lights of football’s firmament, encouraging young and aspiring sportsmen and sportswomen to emulate the lifestyle of patriotic dedication, without commensurately providing the enlightening information required to arouse interest is not nearly a workable project.
Although the celebration of Gbadamosi’s life once again brought up the sports into the radar of the sporting media, there is scarcely anything in the news about Nigerian cricket enough to evoke in willing youngsters the desire to pick up the sport as a career option for personal and national glory in much the same light as athletics, basketball, boxing, weightlifting, to say nothing of football.
As much the the NCF may take some credit for remembering to celebrate a national cricketing icon as the professor and to once more call to the attention of the nation his inimitable contributions to the heritage of cricket in the country from its earliest years, they must recognise the lacuna that exists in the collective national consciousness of the historical and current perspectives of cricket.
It is not enough to say that the renowned University of Ibadan neurologist represented Nigeria as part of the cricket team for 18 years, the last four of which he captained the team, playing as an all-round batter and bowler whilst leading the team to win the Mobolaji Bank-Anthony Quadrangular Series for the third time in 1982, which afforded Nigeria the leave to retire the event’s first trophy.
This information cannot be presented as if in a vacuum. Just as it is incomplete to highlight the fact that Gbadamosi’s service to Nigeria included administering the game at various levels including serving on the working committee of the Nigeria Cricket Association from 1981 to 1989 and also rising to become the association’s Vice Chairman in 1987.
Since, it is not a common and abiding interest in Nigeria, as football is, for instance, there must be an accompanying body of information that will serve as foundational material for the person, sacrifices and contributions of the patriotic professor to make better contextual sense and not only be better understood but also to be most appreciated in a way that can evoke in young, impressionable minds, the desire to emulate and imitate Gbadamosi.
Providing such information necessitates a recourse to history.
According to the International Cricket Council (ICC), which is the global governing body for cricket, the sport was introduced into and first played in Nigeria by British colonial administrators in the 19th century. That initial spark was enflamed by English missionaries and army personnel whose added impetus helped in the spread of the game.
Nigeria’s first ever international cricket match on record was against the Gold Coast (the country now known as Ghana) all the way back in 1904. The Gold Coast won that 25th of May match by 22 runs.
In the time between the two world wars, there were two cricket associations formed and competing actively in Nigeria: the Nigeria Cricket Association (for expatriates) was formed in 1932 while the indigenous cricketers responded with a Nigeria Cricket Association of their own the following year.
Progress towards a singular representative body began in the years leading up to the country’s independence from colonial rule. In 1951, a joint board of control was inaugurated in Lagos that allowed each association retain its identity. But, an amalgamation of both expatriate and indigenous bodies led to the creation of the Nigeria Cricket Association (NCA).
Eventually, in 1957, three years before independence, the body today known as the Nigerian Cricket Federation (NCF) emerged after all the dualised functioning of the previous years, but was only changed to NCF in 2006.
As part of the development of the players, the NCA sent cricketers on training tours of England in 1975, 1981 and 1990. During these visits, Nigerian players trained at the Alf Gover Cricket School and Lord’s, while also playing friendlies to improve their performance levels and apply knowledge learned in training.
At a time of political interest in regional hegemony, Nigeria initiated the process to form a sub-regional body in the early 60s filled as the country was with the heady ideals of self determination. The process culminated in the inaugural meeting of cricket playing countries in West Africa in Freetown, Sierra Leone in May 1965, and the formation of West Africa Cricket Federation (WACF) with headquarters in Nigeria. And, in 1976, WACF evolved into West Africa Cricket Conference (WACC).
Nigeria’s international competitive games which began with the May 1904 loss to Gold Coast continued in 1959, when the Urhobo-born cricketer of repute Rex Edijana Akpofure made history by becoming the first Nigerian to captain a joint Nigerian team (expatriates and locals) in a series against Ghana.
Four years after independence,
Nigeria expanded its international participation by establishing contact with African cricketing teams in the Gambia and Sierra Leone. When the WACF was formed in 1965, a quadrangular tournament featuring the four West African countries of Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone was established.
The tournament itself commenced in 1976 with Nigeria as the pioneer host. This began a period of founding dominance where Nigeria won the first 10 editions of the WACC Quadrangular, an unbroken streak that ran from 1976 to 1997. As the NCF noted in praising Gbadamosi, the learned professor led the team to win the Mobolaji Bank-Anthony Quadrangular Series for the third time in 1982, and Nigeria successfully retired the event’s first trophy for keeps.
In 1973, the Nigerian team went on a six-week East African tour that saw them play in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia. In that tour, the team won two, lost two and drew six international matches, winning most of the friendly matches. Tanzania embarked on a return tour in February the following year and played against the Nigerian cricket team in Nigeria.
However, Nigeria’s earliest exposure to cricket in the UK was organised in the 1950s and 1960s by Unilever (UK) in co-operation with colonial civil servants, company staff on vacation and Nigerian students or summer visitors in the UK, a benefit of international travel and diversity in the sport.
As part of developmental training, the Nigerian cricketers contested against the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord’s Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John’s Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket and still holds considerable global influence.
Having beaten the Nigerian team in previous meets, it experienced its first defeat in West Africa when it lost once in January 1994 to an inspired Nigerian team by three wickets in the first of a two-match series. In more recent times, from 2000, Nigeria has taken part in ICC qualifying tournaments as well as the ICC World Cricket League series.
Nigeria was granted Associate Membership of the ICC in 2002. The country used to be part of the West Africa Cricket Council, which was an ICC member in its own right. The NCF is also a member of the African Cricket Association (ACA).
It is this rich historical tapestry that the NCF was drawing upon in celebrating Gbadamosi as he clocked 80 years old, a history of triumphs, growth and sacrifices, rich in material context that tells a story of perseverance and gradual, painstaking maturation that is still ongoing today.
Today, the team nicknamed “The Yellow Greens” is captained by Ademola Onikoyi. In the last 3 years, the successes recorded have seen Nigeria’s national teams play at the highest level in world Cricket. The most famous being participation at the ICC Under-19 World Cup in 2020 in South Africa, the senior men’s Twennty20 World Cup qualifier of 2019 in the UAE and the national women’s team World Cup qualifier in Zimbabwe also in 2019.
To continuously improve and maintain the standard of the team’s performance at elite level, the Federation took the bold step of hiring the services of a foreign coach of international repute and qualification with proven track record at the highest levels.
This became imperative as Nigeria seeks to compete at more international tournaments in the near future and also improve her performance in World Cricket rankings.
That is where World Cup-winning Sri Lankan cricketer Asanka Gurusinha, who was unveiled in December last year, comes in as the Head Coach and High Performance Manager of Cricket for Nigeria by the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF).
A hard-hitting left-handed batsman who was part of the Sri Lankan World Cup-winning team of 1996, Gurusinha had an 11-year international career and played 41 Tests and 147 One Day Internationals for Sri Lanka. He has taken charge of Nigeria’s national teams and will also act as a coach trainer and mentor to the country’s rapidly growing number of cricket coaches in Nigeria’s move to make the sport a household one for aspiring sportsmen and sportswomen.
This is the foundational material that makes the NCF’s celebration of Gbadamosi’s accomplishments on his birthday balanced and inspiring. And information such as this ought to feature regularly in the media, whether from age-range levels, such as the accomplishments of the U-19s, or at the senior level. If it is not, then there is not much it can arouse in a country like ours dominated by football frenzy.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
