Cricket Bowls Its Way To Most Populous Primary School In Kaduna

Zakari Isah, Kaduna

The largest and most Populous Primary School in Nigeria and its about twenty thousand pupils came to a standstill when the Kaduna State Cricket Association with support from the Nigeria Cricket Federation took the game to LEA Primary School, Lokoja Road, Rigasa, Kaduna.

The pupil’s anxious eyes did not miss every second of the over two hours of Cricket game actions at the school led by the state chief coach Joe Onoja supported by west Africa’s top highest technical official, Enesi Habib with former and national players.

Hajiya Aminatu Abdu Aliyu, the Head Teacher of the School, described the game demonstration as impactful, saying the knowledge gained would spur the children to sports greatness.
She thanked the team for the opportunity and support of the school.

“This team of coaches that came from National and state for cricket game introduction is really a wonderful idea and a development for us and the community at large”
“Now the game has allow them to engage themselves positively, who knows one day one of them or some of them may represent the state or national”.

Hajiya Aminatu further expressed appreciation and prayed that the gestures would continue.
Ruqayya Salis, Aisha Musa Nafeesat Ibrahim, Muhammad Inuwa, and Idris Ismail who participated in some of the sessions with the coaches promised to seize every opportunity to be cricketers.

The trio of Ruqayya Salis, Aisha Musa, and Nafeesat Ibrahim assured of their parent’s support to play the game.

Explaining the objective of the program, coach Onoja said “this is part of the development strategy to take the game to schools”.

“Frankly, speaking I appreciate the primary school in Rigasa for providing a massive population for cricket and bringing the game here to develop the game in Rigasa”.

He noted that there is a lot of potential in Rigasa from the few hours of interaction with the students and pupils.

On the support from the cricket federation, coach Onoja said “whatever we are doing is the handwork of the federation, they are doing well for us and we are proud of them”.

“And again, we are also proud of Kaduna state, especially, His Excellency, Governor Nasiru Ahmad ElRufai who has always been supporting cricket and not only cricket but other sports as well”.

He said the association is doing this to hunt for talents in the state, assuring that the game would continue in Rigasa