Technology has helped improve cricket in Africa, says Shah

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Meet Shah, co-founder of CricHeroes, an online cricket scoring app, said technology has improved the development of cricket in Africa.

Shah said this at the maiden Africa Cricket Roundtable discussion, with focus on development opportunities, hosted by @TheMiddleStump2 on twitter.

Shah said the numbers via the app, shows global sponsors would be heading towards Africa in no distant time.

“I work with Africa zone for few years and mostly with the affiliated countries like Sierra Leone and few others. We help them manage cricket operations through technology. There’s a handsome growth in the continent in terms of players, fans etc and we can see it in the numbers.

“In 2021, there were 260 leagues, 12,000 new players registered and about 3000 matches played. With just six months into 2022, the numbers have increased significantly more than twice. These numbers mean more opportunities for stakeholders in cricket, from grassroots to the top level.

“My best prediction, looking at these numbers is that it is a good sign for global companies to invest in Cricket in Africa. In no distant time, organizations would jostle to bid for broadcasting rights for the leagues in associate countries of ICC and give more experience to the fans to watch the games,” Shah said.

On the issue of numbers, president of the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF), Uyi Akpata, said the country is aimed at reaching two million new entrants in the sport in five years.

Meanwhile, Nigeria was recently awarded the ICC Cricket4Good Social Impact Initiative of the year for using the game as a tool for engaging and assisting in the development of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) in the country.

Akpata said the initiative, which was piloted