Nigeria hope World Cup performances can be catalyst for growth

Media release

Nigeria’s ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup 2025 heroes want their performances to act as a catalyst for the growth of cricket in their country and in Africa as a whole.

The first team to represent Nigeria at an ICC major event have captured the hearts of the cricketing world.

They brought down giants New Zealand to progress through the group stage and claimed a thrilling six-run Super 6 win over Ireland to end their campaign on a high.

With two of their games abandoned due to rain, Nigeria were beaten only by South Africa and finished third in Super 6 Group 2, just one place shy of the semi-finals.

“It’s been a great journey for us,” summed up 16-year-old opener Christabel Chukwuonye, who scored a crucial 25 runs against Ireland.

“We feel a little bit disappointed with the weather conditions and if the rains didn’t come down against England, we feel that we could have made the semi-finals.

“We put in so much hard work in the lead-up to the tournament and we showed our togetherness out on the field.

“That we got this far is not by chance. We worked for it, and we are so proud. We hope to perform much better than this going forward for our future tournaments.”

If Chukwuonye played a key role with the bat, then the star with the ball was medium pacer Lilian Ude who took three for 11 as the Irish were hustled out for 88.

“I wasn’t very much pleased with my first two matches,” admitted Ude, who took one for eight against New Zealand and went wicketless against South Africa.

“This match was much better, but there was nothing that I did differently. The technical and mental approach was exactly the same.”

Leaning on fervent support from family, friends and fans back home, the Nigerian team have embraced every facet of their World Cup experience.

“I’ve gained a lot,” explained Chukwuonye. “I’ve met new people and got to know new teams outside of cricket and learned about my game.

“It has really helped me going forward with my career, so I will go back to my career and put across those things I’ve learned so far so that my career can grow better.”

The Nigeria team are still early in their cricketing journeys but are already aware of the impact that their exploits can have on the wider growth of the game.

Chukwuonye insisted: “For me, I feel like this is a really great opportunity, not just for us as individuals but for Nigeria.”

ENDS