Nigeria national cricket team

Early years

Cricket has been played in Nigeria since the late 19th century when the game was introduced by the British. Contacts between the administration in Lagos and their counterparts in Gold Coast (now Ghana) led to an international in 1904, the Gold Coast winning by 22 runs.^[1]

The match became an annual fixture and for the first three matches was multi-racial. The fourth fixture in December 1906 was for Europeans only, and the African population started their own annual fixture in 1907. Internationals stopped for the First World War, and did not restart until the mid-1920s.^[1]

Between the two world wars, cricket began to become more formally organised in the country with two cricket associations for the Europeans and Africans being formed in 1932 and 1933 respectively. First-class cricketers from England began to appear in the annual matches against Gold Coast,^[1] and the 1939 match, the last before World War II ended in a 58 run win for Gold Coast.^[5]

Matches resumed after the war with a five-day match in Lagos in 1947 which ended in a draw.^[6] The 1949 match went the way of the Gold Coast.^[7] As the number of Europeans working in the country reduced, the quality of the African players increased and cricket began to be organised on multi-racial lines in 1956.^[1]

Post independence

Following Nigeria's independence in 1960, there was much interest in cricket. Annual matches against Sierra Leone and The Gambia began in 1964, and were evenly contested until the late 1970s, when football began to become more popular in the country. Cricket began a process of decline, and when Tanzania toured in 1974, Nigeria lost two of the three matches and drew the other. They also lost heavily to the MCC in 1976. Internal problems with both the Nigeria Cricket Association and in Nigeria itself led to a decline in standards, though Nigeria formed a majority of the players on the West Africa cricket team^[1] that became an ICC associate member in 1976.^[8]

The West Africa team took part in the ICC Trophy tournaments of 1982 and 1997 before withdrawing from the 2001 tournament in Ontario.^[9] Nigeria still continued to play on their own on occasion,^[1] though they sometimes withdrew from tournaments, as at the 1998 Africa Cricket Association Championship.^[10] The West African Cricket Conference ceased to exist in 2002,^[1] and Nigeria became an associate member of the ICC in their own right the same year.^[2]

ICC membership

Nigeria's first tournament after becoming an ICC member on their own was the 2002 Africa Cup in Zambia. Nigeria finished fourth in their group after their only win of the tournament against Malawi.^[11] They finished 5th in the Africa Cricket Association Championships in 2004, their only win coming against last placed Tanzania, thus failing to qualify for the 2005 ICC Trophy.^[12]

In August 2006, Nigeria took part in Division Two of the World Cricket League Africa Region in Tanzania,^[13] finishing last.^[14] This originally relegated them to Division Three,^[1] though they are not playing in that tournament in 2008.^[15] They won the North West Africa Championship in 2007^[16] and 2008.^[17] Nigeria are played in Division Two of the World Cricket League Africa Region in 2008 and came second hence qualifying for 2009 ICC World Cricket League Division Seven. They came 3rd in the tournament thus remaining in the division .^[15] In May 2011 Nigeria participated in the 2011 ICC World Cricket League Division Seven in Botswana.^[18] Nigeria came second in tournament this qualifying for 2011 ICC World Cricket League Division Six. Then the team went to South Africa in May 2011 to participate in 2011 ICC Africa Division two (T20) en route to qualification of 2012 ICC World Twenty20. They won the tournament and qualified for 2011 ICC Africa Division one^[19]

In August 2018, they were included in the 2018 Africa T20 Cup tournament.^[20][21]

World Cup

• 1975: Not eligible – Not an ICC member^[2]
• 1979 to 2003: See West African cricket team
• 2007: Did not qualify^[12]

ICC Trophy

• 1979 to 2001: See West Africa cricket team
• 2005: Did not qualify^[12]

ICC World Cricket League global

• 2009: 3rd place (Division Seven)
• 2011: 2nd place (Division Seven)
• 2011: 5th place (Division Six)
• 2013: 1st place (Division Seven)
• 2013: 2nd place (Division Six)
• 2014: 4th place (Division Five)

ICC World Cricket League Africa Region

• 2006: 5th place (Division Two)^[14]
• 2011: 1st place (Division Two)(T20)^[19]

Players

The following players have represented Nigeria internationally and also played first-class cricket:

• Henry Savory – played for Gloucestershire in 1937.^[23]
• Richard Parkhouse – played for Glamorgan in 1939.^[24]
• Geoffrey Anson – played for Cambridge University and Kent in 1947.^[25]
• Robert Melsome – played for Gloucestershire between 1925 and 1934.^[26]
• William Shirley – played for Hampshire and Cambridge University between 1922 and 1925.^[1][27]