Piety Lucky, the right-hand batter and African Games bronze medallist, has been named captain of Nigeria’s U-19 girls’ cricket team for the upcoming 2025 ICC U-19 Women’s Cricket World Cup qualifiers. The announcement was made by the Nigeria Cricket Federation on Tuesday.
The 14-player squad will travel to Kigali, Rwanda, where the rescheduled qualifiers will take place from September 22 to 29. Alongside Captain Piety, the team features standout players such as Peculiar Agboya, Shola Adekunle, Lilian Ude, and Christabel Chukwuonye. Other team members include Kehinde Amusa, Anointed Akhigbe, Peace Usen, Deborah Bassey, Eguakun Omosigho, Victory Igbenedion, Inyene Ubong, Naomi Memeh, and Beauty Oguai.
The team’s journey began with matches against Ghana U-19 and South West selections. Nigeria will face Malawi, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe in the qualifiers. Originally, Nigeria was set to compete in a two-group tournament of seven teams each. However, the late addition of Zimbabwe led to a restructuring, with the top four teams withdrawing to form a new division.
The winner of Division 1 will earn Africa’s second spot in the World Cup, joining South Africa, New Zealand, and Samoa in Group C of the finals. The World Cup, which will be held from January 8 to February 2, 2025, in Malaysia, will feature 16 teams.
