‘Why South-South dominates national U-17 cricket’

Theophilus Ibodeme

South South U-17 teams’ coach, Theophilus Ibodeme, has described his zone’s continued dominance of the country’s youth cricket as a reward for meticulous planning and investment in grassroots development.

South-South last weekend won the fifth NCF/PwC National U-17 Championship held at the twin Ovals of the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja.

As in previous editions, the boys and girls’ teams from the region went unbeaten at the national finals and retained their titles for each class.

Speaking on the feat, Ibodeme said: “By the grace of God Almighty, we are glad to have won again, and this time, it feels special because many of the teams have stepped up their game, and it was a tough event full of different tactics.

“This means that we have to dig deeper technically going forward if we have to retain our winning edge in the region.”

Representing PricewaterhouseCoopers, Tolu Adeleke, a partner at the firm, said that the event has lived up to the expectations of his firm as a tool to galvanize the country and also empower girls.

“We are very glad that the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF) has sustained the values that attracted our interest in this project; the fact that the event has even been elevated to become the nursery that produces our national team players is very encouraging,” he said.

Team South-West was another team that threw everything at the event this year, and their effort earned them runner-up places at both the boys and girls’ events.

Joseph Omonkhobhio and Joy Osazuwa were the Most Valuable Players, boys and girls, respectively. The two players are from the winning South-South teams.

The 2024 PwC National U-17 Championship featured 34 of the 36 states of the federation and the Federal