15th November, 2012
National Cricket team batsman Emmanuel Okwudili has said that the 2012 National Sports Festival, would provide an opportunity for new cricket talents that would make the national team in the future to be discovered.
Okwudili made this remark during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
The batsman, therefore, urged intending cricket players at the Eko 2012 to make good use of the opportunity that the fiesta would provide.
He said: “The reason the NSF is staged is for the discovery and grooming of talents for the nation’s overall sports development.
“I passed through it to get to the national team and it has become a tradition that you must participate in the festival before you can get into the national team.
“And the national team are 30 per cent open to new players and my advice to all players participating at the 18th NSF is that they should strive to do their very best.”
Okwudili noted that most of the cricketers who have participated in the NSF eventually turned out to be outstanding players in the national team.
When asked about the national team, Okwudili said that the team are yet to go into camping ahead of the 2013 season.
“We are hoping that the National Cricket Federation (NCF) will call us to camp by December.
“As I am talking to you, other national teams have already been in camp for the past six months now,” Okwudili said.