History of Cricket in Nigeria
Crickets were introduced in Nigeria by the British Colonial Administrators back in the 19th Century. The first ever recorded international cricket match was the 1904 Cricket match between Nigeria and their counterparts in Gold Coast (now Ghana).
The match which was played in Gold coast later turned to be yearly fixture, the first three matches was for all races (multi-racial), while the fourth match fixture which was held in the year 1906 on the month of December was scheduled for only the European countries. Later in the year 1907, Africa established their own annual fixture but the First World War disrupted the internationals till the mid-1920s.
Prior to the two world wars, cricket sport became more formally organized in the country with two cricket associations for the Europeans and Africans; this was formed in the year 1932 and 1933 respectively, providing professional cricketers from England with an avenue to start participating in the yearly African matches which were held in Gold coast but in the year 1939, before the end of World War II, Gold Coast won with 58 runs win.
After the war in 1947, the five-day match hosted in Lagos ended with a draw, after which the 1949 match went the way of the gold coast. The quality of the African players increased and became more organized on a multi-racial line in 1956 with the decrease in the number of Europeans working in the country.
After Nigeria gained independence in 1960, 4 years after (1964), the annual matches against Sierra Leone and Gambia began because there was much interest in cricket from other African countries. Which were evenly contested for until the year 1970 when football began to become more popular in Nigeria and the sports of Crickets started to decline.
Nigeria lost two of the three matches and drew the other when Tanzania toured in 1974, this followed with the heavy loss to the MCC as a result of the internal problems between the cricket association and Nigeria itself.
Nigerians lost their standard even though the majority of players on the west cricket team were Nigerians and they became an associate member of the International Cricket Council in the year 1976 as well.
In 1982 and 1997 before withdrawing from the 2001 tournament in Ontario, the West Africa team took part in the ICC Trophy tournament.
Nigeria continued playing on their own occasionally although they withdrew sometimes from the tournament as they did in the 1998 Africa Cricket Association championship.
The West Africa Cricket conference stopped existing in the year 2002, and that same year, was when Nigeria finally and fully became one the associate members of the International Cricket Council in their own right.
After Nigeria became an ICC member in the 2002 Africa cup in Zambia; they failed to qualify for the 2005 ICC Trophy after they finished fourth in their group which was their only tournament win against Malawi which they finished 5th in the Africa Cricket Association Championship in 2004.
In August 2006, Nigeria participated in Division Two of the world Crickets League African Region in Tanzania and came home with nothing; this relegated them to a lower ranking in Division Three.
They kept playing in that tournament till when they won the North West Africa Championship in 2008, they ranked second for qualifying the 2009 ICC World Crickets League Division Seven. They took the 3rd grade in the tournament thus remaining in the Division.
In May 2011, Nigeria took part in the ICC African Cricket League Division Seven in Botswana, Nigeria ranked 2nd in the tournament which qualified them for 2011 ICC World Cricket League Division Six. Nigeria regained their position in South Africa after ranking second in their 2011 ICC African Division one, to qualify for the 2012 ICC World.
