National cricket team players now on contract, Federation official says

At Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF) has given contracts to national team players to improve the quality of play.

Taiwo Oriss, NCF secretary general, said this at the federation’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Friday in Abuja.

Oriss said the idea was to emulate the style of play of country after country such as South Africa, Zimbabwe, and others who are African cricket-playing nations.

“One of the strategic plans the board agreed on was to look at how we can get the most out of our players—how we can give them more games.

“The board decided that approval was given to the board to pay allowances to the players as a contractual method.

“We signed players to the national team and put them on the payroll, and it has been in effect since November 2022. Only this AGM ratified the decision today.

“But I think this is one of the steps that will be taken to help the council achieve the desired results in terms of participation, promotion requirements, and output,” he said.

The NCF official also added that the contract is for the men’s senior team only, with plans to get contracts for other teams.

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“This is the first stage, and we start with the men’s national team. We are divided into two groups: the A team and the B team.

“We are only considering Team A, who are first team players, for the current contract.

“This is like a test approach to get the desired result for the federation. I can say that we just want to start from where we are.

“Hopefully, before the end of the year, most likely in the first or second quarter, I’m sure that the board will take things to the next level and involve women and other teams as well,” added Oriss.

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AT