TIME is running out for the Nigerian cricket team to make it here for the start of the Pepsi World Cricket League Division Seven tournament.
At 11am on Sunday, the Nigerians are due to step on to Port Soif to take on Suriname in their first match of the competition.
However, the 14 players and three officials are still waiting in Nigeria for their British visas to be processed.
Yesterday, while his side waited by the country’s main airport in Lagos, the team manager Ladipo Idowu, was an hour’s flight away at the British High Commission in the capital Abuja.
‘They told us to come back tomorrow,’ he said.
‘It’s really traumatic. If we have to come back tomorrow the whole trip will be missed. We’ve been waiting for three weeks and we’ve not seen the road out of this yet.’
Idowu said that due to a mixture of lack of communication and bureaucracy at the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the British High Commission did not get the relevant paperwork to be able to start processing their visa requests until Monday.
The delay has seen the Nigerians waste more than £10,000 on a two-week warm-up tour of England, which had to aborted.
Idowu had a forthright answer as to whether he was angry.
‘That is an understatement,’ he said.
‘This is the first time that Nigeria will be playing outside Africa. We’ve worked extremely hard to get here.
‘I’ve got so many things in my life but these guys have got their whole careers in front of them. They are young and this is not easy for them.
‘We’ll have to get a professional sports psychologist, so that they don’t get too depressed.’
There is a cloud of confusion around the situation.
The Nigerian captain, Adewale Adeoye, who was with the team in Lagos yesterday, believed that they were close to getting their visas and would be flying to Heathrow this morning.
While the tournament organiser, Guernsey Cricket Board chief executive Mark Latter (pictured), said he has had no contact from the Nigerians to say that there was a problem.
He pointed out that if the Nigerians do get their visas and fly to Heathrow today, they still would have missed their flights here this morning from Gatwick and there are no guarantees that they can get some in time for the start.
‘Until someone tells us that they can’t get here, we’ve got to assume that they will get here,’ he said.
‘As long as everyone is here for Sunday, that’s the main thing. Fingers crossed.’
Article posted on 15th May, 2009 - 2.30pm
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