Nigeria is not in the top league of cricket nations yet, but remarkable standards set by players, officials and administrators recently point to a bright future for the game in the country. 

The remarkable achievement can be seen with the Nigeria U19 Women's  Cricket Team making history on Sunday by  clinching the Sole Ticket of the African Qualifiers to book their place in the U19 World. 

Football, Basketball and Athletics are the top and popular sports in the country, but cricket is gradually making waves in Nigeria with the recent results and achievements made by the Federation. 

ORIGIN OF CRICKET IN NIGERIA. 

Like most Commonwealth countries, cricket was first introduced to Nigeria by British colonial administrators in the 19th century. The Nigerian team (consisting entirely of British colonialists) made its international debut against the Gold Coast (now Ghana) in 1904. However, it took until 1957 for Nigeria to form a unified national cricket association. And then another 45 years to join the International Cricket Council (ICC) as an Associate member in 2002. 

ACHIEVEMENTS

In 2018 to 2019, Nigeria Cricket recorded its highest achievement.  Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Tanzania were promoted to Division 1 where they competed with Kenya, Namibia and Uganda after winning the division two qualifiers held in Potchefstroom, South Africa. 

In the  Africa Division One tournament  played in Windhoek, Namibia from 17 to 23 March 2019. Nigeria won the tournament by winning all five of their matches to qualify through to their first World Cup.

After clinching the first ever World Cup Ticket for the Nigeria Cricket Federation, all the U19 players were promoted to the Senior National Team and two years later the team produced an excellent result by finishing 4th in  2021 ICC T20 World Cup Africa Qualifiers, the best ever outing for the Nigeria National Men till date and which also gave them their best Cricket World Rankings (36) till date.

The revolution also extends to the Women's National team as the Senior team has participated in the ICC Women's World Cup Qualifiers and T20 World Cup Qualifiers from 2019 to 2023 after playing their first international match in 2011.

In 2024, Nigeria Women won their first ever medal, beating high ranked Uganda to clinch Bronze in 2024 African Games in Accra Ghana.

And to round up their activities for the year, the U19 Women's made history by securing the women's teams first ever World Cup qualifications by edging Zimbabwe at the T20 African Qualifiers in Rwanda to cement their place at the ICC U19 Women's T20 World Cup in Malaysia.