EC Roundup – 02 February 2025 – Nigeria’s successful U19 World Cup and some reflections on the event

Welcome to this week’s Emerging Cricket Roundup, condensing all the major news into one easy-to-digest place. In this week’s wrap:

Headlines

Nigeria turn heads at U19 World Cup

Should the U19 World Cup expand in future?

Thailand start brightly in Nepal tri-series

Quick Take on the U19 World Cup from Daniel Beswick

Nigeria turn heads at U19 Women’s World Cup

Nigeria enjoyed a stellar World Cup campaign, bringing their tournament to a close with another victory over a Full Member. This time the opponents were Ireland, who themselves had pulled off an “upset” in the group stages by beating Pakistan and qualifying for the Super Six stage.

Batting first, the yellow greens ground their way to 94/7 in 20 overs. Opener Christabel Chukwuonye top scored with 25 off 42 balls with notable cameos from Omosigho Eguakun (17 off 23), Peculiar Agboya (17 off 20) and captain Lucky Piety (12 off 11). On the bowling front, Ireland’s Kia McCartney took 2/15 while four of her teammates chipped in with a wicket each.

The chase

In response, Ireland started solidly and were on track to chase the score down at 30/1 after 5.5 overs. However, a spirited comeback by the Nigerian bowling unit turned the game around dramatically. The Irish collapsed to 54/6 at the 12 over mark, courtesy of double strikes to Lillian Udeh and Annointed Akhigbe.

A quickfire 20 run partnership between Mille Spence and Niamh MacNulty briefly resurrected Irish hopes but both batters fell on successive balls to swing the game firmly in Nigeria’s favour again. Eventually, the Irish were bowled out for 88, falling only seven runs short of the target.

For the Nigerians, it was a thrilling victory to round out a highly successful World Cup campaign. Their performances were a direct consequence of their board’s investment in women’s cricket. Most of the players had prior experience of playing international cricket and therefore were well equipped at handling pressure throughout various key moments in their games. The World Cup wins also received plenty of sports coverage in football mad Nigeria, highlighting once again why the populous West African nation is seen by ICC as one of the priority members for global growth.

Friday 31st January 2025, Headlines https://t.co/5q1IKgBrO3#NigeriacricketFederation #JuniorFemaleYellowgreens #FemaleYellowGreens pic.twitter.com/Uw8qxJcQYJ

— Nigeria Cricket Federation (@cricket_nigeria) January 31, 2025

Should the U19 World Cup expand in future?

With wins over New Zealand and Ireland, Nigeria repeated Rwanda’s exploits at the 2023 U19 T20 World Cup. The Rwandans had also defeated two ICC full members in their debut event, with wins over Zimbabwe and West Indies.

However this time, they missed out on qualification with a comprehensive loss to Nigeria in the semi-finals of the African Qualifier. With only one qualification spot available per region outside of the automatically qualified teams, it is extremely difficult for Associate nations to reach the main event.

Therefore, there is no guarantee that we will see Nigeria at the U19 World Cup in two years’ time. Indeed, there are media reports from Nigeria stating that the girls have auto qualified for the 2027 World Cup in Bangladesh and Nepal. However, no such confirmation or details have been released by the ICC yet.

Women’s cricket has tremendous potential. Unfortunately, the global governing body is failing to fully tap into this market with highly restrictive world events. A consideration for the U19 World Cup to be expanded to 20 teams should be made, to provide chances to more Associate nations to shine on the world stage.

Meanwhile for the senior women, expansion to 16 teams doesn’t take place until the 2030 T20 World Cup. This feels highly inadequate and cannot come soon enough. Time for ICC to wake up and play ball!

Thailand start brightly in Nepal Tri-series

Thailand got the best of the opening exchanges in the Nepal WT20I tri-series, winning both of their opening matches, against the hosts and the Netherlands. The Dutch won the other game in the first trio of matches to take 2nd place in the standings.

In the opening game, Netherlands set Nepal a challenging chase of 158, after Robine Rijke punched an effective 59* and some death overs fireworks by Iris Zwilling (31 off 13 balls). In reply, the Nepalis kept up with the run rate, but the regular loss of wickets saw the hosts fall away at the end, finishing 137/7 to lose by 20 runs.

🔥 𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗨𝗟𝗧 🔥🇳🇵𝗪𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻 𝘃𝘀 🇹🇭 𝗪𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻

The Thailand Women cruise to victory, chasing down 102 with 4 wickets to spare! A dominant all-round performance seals the win for Thailand Women ! 🙌

Score – https://t.co/JHjhjwuXgB#womenst20itriangular #letsgothailand🇹🇭 pic.twitter.com/bktzrcApnX

— Cricket Thailand (@ThailandCricket) February 1, 2025

The Dutch could not maintain the momentum with the bat in the second fixture, as the trademark miserly bowling from the Thai unit restricted the Lionesses to 122/6, despite a fifty from Babette de Leede. De Leede’s efforts were matched by Nannapat Koncharoenkai, and with support from the top order, Thailand iced the chase with 8 wickets and two overs to spare.

Finally, a low scoring battle saw the Thai team come out on top against Nepal, completing a four-wicket win with six balls to spare. It was yet again Nannapat leading the way for Thailand with an unbeaten 60, and whilst the Nepalis chipped away at the rest of the order it was not enough in defence of only 101.

The 9-match series continues until the 7th of February.

Quick Take

Daniel Beswick while on the ground in Malaysia at U19 Women’s T20 World Cup

It’s a point that could be made from 5,000 kilometres away, but it hits harder with boots on the ground: The women’s game remains the best vehicle to fast-track your standing as an Associate member.

In Asia and Africa especially, where it could be argued the uptake of women’s cricket has been a little slow in pockets, there is easy ground to be made in relative terms even if world events prevent participation at global events.

Nigeria in 2025 and Rwanda in 2023 are the obvious examples, with the former two years ahead of their projections, qualifying for the U19 World Cup and qualifying for the Super Sixes, and pointed out above in this week’s round-up.

Nepal is the obvious parallel in Asia, rolling over Pakistan at the Asia Cup. Pakistan, a side and nation who showed little to dispel perhaps a poor reputation in developing women’s cricket with a poor World Cup showing in Malaysia, look years away from matching even the strong Associates.

Given the scorecard funding model rewards strong numbers in equal measure across men’s and women’s cricket, there’s scope if anything to go with majority weighting in favour of women’s cricket development, before moving to an equal model.

Beyond the boundary

DB again from Malaysia

It may come with experience of competing at global events, though it is paramount that members understand, in no uncertain terms, all the responsibilities of being a World Cup participant.

Remaining unnamed, one Associate member’s team and media manager were reluctant in sending their playing group to attend a compulsory media session, using a laundry issue as an excuse, before squad members flashed their playing shirts out of their kit bags.

Not only would the broadcast, website and social media coverage look ridiculous with a team missing their content, it sets the tone of a poor relationship between a governing body attempting to raise the profile of future stars, and a member that can only enhance its profile with the attention of a World Cup.

On top of this, the session included a meeting with a safeguarding partner of the ICC, GoBubble, providing education and programmes for safer social media practice.

Another member, now at multiple global tournaments, has failed to send their media manager to the tournament, when the ICC would cover their flights, accommodation and expenses. Every other team, at both events, fulfilled this requirement.

Media exposure is a two-way street. If either of these members were to cry foul in regards to coverage of them, then they must take responsibility and do their part in helping the process. On a subconscious level, letting down and making someone else’s day harder by not doing your due diligence is not a great start to your campaign.

Coming Up

The Nepal tri-series continues to the 7th of February, with another six T20Is to come. Meanwhile, a second T20I series will begin, this time in Malta. The hosts are joined by Austria and Hungary for a 6-match series between the 3rd and 5th of February, which will be livestreamed by the European Cricket Network.

Later in the week, Challenge League B resumes, with the second leg hosted in Hong Kong. Uganda hold a slim lead over the hosts and Italy, with Bahrain, Tanzania and Singapore forming the chasing pack. The second leg runs between 6th and 16th February.

Reporting by Shounak Sarkar, Tom Grunshaw and Daniel Beswick