Anambra male, female teams win 10th Chuma Anosike Cricket cup

Anambra on Sunday demonstrated class in cricket when it won the male and female cricket finals decided at the Paul University Cricket oval in Awka.

The male team saw off their contemporaries from Enugu comprising largely of players from University of Nigeria, Nsukka with a 81 runs 13.1 overs seven wickets down against their university boys’ 77 runs 19.1 10 wickets down.
The male team played a total of four games and won all including against Abia, Ebonyi and Enugu twice.
Abia were third and Ebonyi picked the rear in the championship.

Speaking on the victory of the decade edition, Somtochukwu Okafor captain of Anambra lauded the Enugu boys for being the major contenders in the championship.
Okafor said his team did their best and came out tops in spite of initial technical hiccups .
“We are happy for the victory and that they hosted and won; it has boosted our confidence and prepared us better to face tough opponents,” he said.
Imo state cricket team did not participate in the competition but official information revealed that 10 players from the team including eight males and two females joined their friends in Abia, Ebonyi and Anambra to make up their teams.
In the female category, Anambra were champions after winning Ebonyi, the lone rivals in a formality final game having beaten them in their two previous encounters.
With the victory, Anambra is now second time winners in the female category out of the three editions ladies had featured, Ebonyi won the second edition.
Miracle Nwigboji, captain of Ebonyi female team said they were not mentally ready for the first game and her teammates could not bat very well but argued the Anambra girls were not better than her team.
Nwigboji said part of the lessons was that they could now bat straight balls and field bette and advocated that more training for team would make them far better at National Sports Festival, Edo 2020.
She said her team was a young side with average age of 15 years that had the potential to rule Nigeria cricket if well supported.
She thanked the sponsor, Chuma Anosike for his efforts at supporting and sponsoring the game in the zone.
Speaking at the end of the championship, Anosike said his idea of 10 years old had grown to become a reality he looked forward to.
Anosike, who is the Chairman of Anambra Cricket Association said at inception, only Anambra and Enugu were actively involved in cricket but expressed satisfaction that the game had become popular in Imo, Abia and Ebonyi states.
He said his dream was to ensure that cricket players from the South East part of the country featured prominently at the national and international scale.
Anosike thanked the Anambra government for promising to make available a place for the association to build a cricket oval in the state promising that if fulfilled, international cricket games would be played in Anambra.
In his remark, Tony Oli, Chairman of Anambra Sports Development Commission congratulated the participating teams for their exploits especially the Anambra teams for emerging victorious.
Oli said the championship was a major boost for the state cricket teams which would be competing at the national sports festival in Benin City.
Oli appreciated Anosike for sponsoring the championship for 10 years without seeking government assistance and pledged that the state government would do all that was possible to make the association excel with all its programme .
According to him, the cricket oval will not be a problem for us.
Okeke Chijioke won the bowler and cricketer of the series while Somto Agu won the batsman of the series (NAN)