Nigeria won all 13 eligible categories at the 2024 Middle Stump end-of-year award ceremony for African cricket, which took place on Friday at the Cricket Lab of the Tafawa Balewa Square Oval in Lagos.
The award was created to recognise cricketing excellence throughout Africa, and it was an evening to commemorate an extraordinary year for Nigerian cricket, which saw the country win a historic bronze medal at the African Games in Ghana and qualify for the 2025 ICC Women’s U-19 World Cup in Malaysia.
Head coach of Nigeria women’s national cricket team, Leke Oyede, who led the Female Yellow Greens to the historic bronze medal win at the African Games in Ghana won the Coach of The Year award ahead of Uganda’s Jackson Owang, Cathy McComb of Malawi and Nigeria’s U-19 women’s coach Sarah Bhakitha.
For claiming Africa’s ticket to the U-19 Women’s World Cup in Malaysia, the Junior Female Yellow Greens also won the Best Cricketing Moment in Africa in the year under review ahead of their senior colleague’s African Games bronze medal feat as well as Uganda qualifying for the 2024 T20 World Cup.
The Edo State Cricket Association was also voted for the Best Grassroots Development Program in 2024 on the continent, beating Soroti Cricket Academy (Uganda), Cricket Builds Hope (Rwanda), Northern Cosmopolitan Cricket Club (Nigeria), PETS Foundation (Nigeria) and Abinu Kondotti Foundation (Nigeria).
Okechukwu Onwudiwe of the Northern Cosmopolitan Academy also won the award for Individual Contribution to Grassroots Development in Africa.
Nigerian umpires, Tope Onikoyi and Dahiru Enesi were both voted the male and female Umpires of The Year.
In other players categories, captain of the Malaysia 2025 World Cup-bound women’s U-19 team, Piety Lucky, won the Nigeria Women’s Player of The Year while Yellow Greens left-handed batsman Isaac Danladi was voted the Men’s Player of The Year.
The men’s and women’s Young Player of The Year awards went to Peculiar Agboya and former Junior Yellow Greens captain Ridwan Abdulkareem while Ene Odang was the Administrator of The Year.
Former NCF president, Kwesi Sagoe, bagged a Lifetime Service Award while Funmilayo Omoniyi was voted Fan’s Fan of the Year.
