Hail to Nigeria’s Aho… World’s T20i ‘King’

It is not every day that countries like Nigeria mark resounding marks in international cricket. It becomes even more astonishing when such marks are so recognised that compilers of the Guinness Book Of World Records find it worthy to enter the global hall of fame.

Such is the recent accomplishment by 19-year-old Peter Aho, who has become the latest Nigerian to be recognised by the book for excellence.

There are, in fact, a few mentions of Nigeria’s sport achievements at any level in the Guinness World Records, but none in cricket. But when the 2022 edition was updated recently, a singular entry from the achievement of Aho sent the cricket world buzzing about the biggest black nation in the world.

Sometime in October 2021, in a bid to jazz up the many developmental initiatives that the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF) has been rolling out in the past years, the federation staged a six-match bilateral duel with Sierra Leone, its most competitive West African neighbour.

The matches were a chiseling round for the senior men’s team, who were Rwanda-bound for another major challenge, but the demands from the event required the team to dig in for more.

Nigeria has always been the better side despite the tensed-up atmosphere that every encounter has proven to be. But the victories have not come without a number of slips that give the visitors opportunities to etch out wins and even stomp the host and make local fans palpitate. The ‘Saros’ were no pushovers and when given the chance they make the Yellow-Green sweat.

At last year’s encounter, Nigeria paraded a high-performance manager in Asanka Gurursinha, and by the fifth match the visitors, had leveraged a crack to steal a win that left the encounter at 4-1 in favour of the hosts.

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