Nigeria women’s U-19 cricket team, the Junior Female Yellow Greens will on Friday (today) commence the second phase of their preparations for the 2025 ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup in Lagos, The PUNCH reports.
The second Women’s U-19 World Cup will be hosted in Malaysia from January 18 to February 2, 2025.
After sealing qualification in September, the team had their first phase of preparation at the high-performance centre of the Nigeria Cricket Federation in Benin City before arriving Lagos.
The Lagos camping will be followed by the final phase of preparation in India by January.
“The team has been in Lagos before the holidays to finalise logistics ahead of their trip to India” the NCF stated.
“Officially, they will begin training at the TBS Oval on Friday before proceeding to India for a 10-day camping.”
It’s the second time Nigeria will qualify for any cricket World Cup, the first being the men’s U-19 team, who also defied the odds to qualify for their World Cup in South Africa in 2019.
Ahead of Nigeria’s second appearance at the global level, the NCF has announced a strong 15-player squad for the tournament in Malaysia.
In an unchanged squad from the qualifiers in Kigali, captain Lucky Piety will lead 14 other players including Shola Adekunle, Peculiar Agboya, Anointed Aikigbe, Lillian Ude and Christabel Chukwuonye.
Other players are Kehinde Amusa, wicketkeeper Deborah Bassey, Bieni Jessica, Omosigbo Eguakun, Victory Igbinedion, Naomi Memeh, Beauty Oguai, Inyene Umoh and super bowler Peace Usen.
The team will be led by Kenyan coach Sarah Bakhita and will be assisted by former Yellow Greens captain Blessing Etim.
In Malaysia, the Junior Yellow Greens will play in Group C at the tournament alongside New Zealand, South Africa, and Samoa.
Their first match will be against Samoa on January 18, 2025, before facing New Zealand two days later and South Africa on January 22, 2025.
The 2025 ICC U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup is the second edition of the tournament with India as the defending champions.
