Nigera Warns Uganda Ahead of T20 Clash

The Nigeria Cricket team has warned hosts Uganda ahead of their February 24 clash in the T20 World Cup qualifying tournament. The tournament runs in Kampala, February 23 to March 1 at the Lugogo and Kyambogo Ovals.

Team vice-Captain Dotun Olatunji said today in an interview that they are here for serious business and the first team they play-Uganda will be in for a shock.

Olatunji said that the T20 tournament is all about being explosive and they are here to do that. The Vice Captain said that beating Uganda would give them a good momentum ahead of other games.

The other teams taking part in the tournament include; Kenya, Tanzania and Botswana. Uganda to be captained by Davis Arinaitwe Karashani will be defending the title they won in 2011 when they beat Namibia in the final. The Nigerian team arrived in Uganda last Thursday to acclimatize to the Ugandan environment and also play build-up games.

Pepsi International and the International Cricket Council (ICC) are the sponsors of the event where they will cater for the accommodation and air tickets of the teams to a tune of US$70,000. This is the second time Pepsi Cola is sponsoring the tournament: the first having been in 2011 when the Inaugural tournament took place in which Uganda took the title after a comprehensive six-wicket win over Namibia.

The winning nation along with the runners up of the event and Namibia will represent Africa at the ICC’s penultimate round of the World Cup qualifier in the U.A.E. The Africa region will thus have three teams playing at the qualifiers in the UAE in 2014.

Nigeria team handled by Coach Uthe Ogbimi includes some stars like; Ademola Onikoyi, Jide Bejide, Osita Onwuzulike, Chimeze Onwuzulike and Dotun Olatunji among others