COACH/PLAYER of Nigerias national team, which is currently pursuing promotion to the Division Six of the World Cricket League (WCL), Sean Phillips, and captain of the side, Endurance Ofem, have affirmed their belief in the countrys ability to win the ongoing WCL Division Seven play-off in Botswana.Nigeria has played two maAtches against Norway and Germany and won all at the championship featuring six teams drawn from across the world. Speaking after Mondays victory over Germany, Phillips, who has overseen the transformation of Nigeria to an aggressive team, believes the team has shown why it deserves a spot in the Division Six, adding that the results so far are pointers to the teams form.Assuring Nigerians that the team would not lose focus of its target after two good results, Phillips, who was declared man of the match in the game against Germany, said: I am really happy that we have scored another victory today but we cant rest on it.As someone who is both player and coach of the side, I feel we lost too many wickets when it came to chasing down a small target and it is something I want us to work on ahead of the fixture against Kuwait.Even though yesterday was a rest day for all the teams, Phillips said Nigeria would use that opportunity to assess its performance so far and work on the teams identified weak points Also elated by Nigerias performance thus far, team captain, Endurance Ofem, believes his side has what it takes to go all the way at the tournament.He is confident that having beaten the likes of Norway and Germany, only a major mishap would deny his team promotion to the higher level. Ofem said: We have been working hard as a unit since we went to South Africa and spent quality time training at the indoor facilities in Benoni, with two friendly games being played against some decent opposition.I am happy the guys have hit good form here, but we are looking at ways of further improving on the good performance. We are also happy to be playing on hard surfaces similar to the conditions back home in Nigeria. I feel we have a chance and the team is set and in good form, so should get the necessary results under the conditions in Gaborone. Ofem disclosed that Nigeria carefully followed the other teams in the tournament ahead of the event and knows the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition. He said: We followed carefully the proceedings in WCL Division Six, Norway was beaten in the fifth/sixth play-off by Botswana while Kuwait won WCL Division Eight and Germany came second.Before this competition began, we had not played Germany, Norway and Kuwait but we were very much aware of the attacking form of cricket played by Kuwait. We tried and learnt a bit about Germany, while Japan played its last tournament with a young side, so we expected some form of maturity to have grown within the side considering the amount of development work Japan has put into its cricket.Having won the first two games, we are now in a position to fight for that promotion ticket. It is now up to us to make the best of the remaining matches, and from what I have seen of the determination in the boys, there is no stopping us.After observing yesterday as rest day, play resumes today with Nigeria meeting Kuwait at Lobatse and taking on Japan tomorrow before ending its first round routine with a game against home team, Botswana, at the weekend.
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