Musa Ehizoje, the public relations officer (PRO) of the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF), says the Nigerian under-19 women’s team’s tour of India will affect their World Cup performance.

Nigeria secured the lone African qualifying slot in Rwanda in September, ahead of the Under 19 World Cup scheduled to be held between January 18 and February 2 in Malaysia.

Ehizoje said Thursday that the experience the team garnered from the tour would be pivotal to the team’s World Cup success.

He said the team trained in “high-performance” facilities in Edo and Lagos after its qualification, but this was not enough for the federation.

“We decided to have them travel to India and camp in Omtex ICWC Cricket Institute, which has one of the best cricket training structures and facilities in India.

“The tour of India is necessary to put them in a competition mode, have other professionals analyse and make inputs on their preparations, as well as acclimatise with the Asian weather.

“This trip to India will definitely rub off on the team when they begin their campaign at the World Cup. They will depart India on Sunday for Malaysia,’’ Ehizoje said.

Ehizoje said the team had been in India for about five days. They played games with the Omtex team and had yoga sessions to prepare them physically and mentally.

The Nigerian cricket team will begin its campaign in Group C against Samoa on January 18. It will then face New Zealand on January 20 and South Africa on January 22.

Nigeria and South Africa are the continent’s flag-bearers in the 16-nation tournament.

Nigeria picked the only qualification slot for Africa to qualify, while South Africa gained automatic qualification to the event due to their rankings.

(NAN)