Mangongo Targets Nigeria’s Qualification for 2028 Cricket World Cup

Duro Ikhazuagbe 

Newly appointed Head Coach and High-Performance Manager of the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF), Stephen Maziva Mangongo, said at his unveiling yesterday in Lagos that his target is to see Nigeria qualify to play in the 2028 Cricket World Cup.

The experienced Zimbabwean cricket coach who was unveiled by the NCF board led by Dr Uyi Akpata at the TBS Cricket Oval in Lagos, expressed excitement to be appointed by Nigeria on a three-year contract to help further development of cricket in the country.

With a solid background in leading Zimbabwe’s U-15, U-19, Zimbabwe A Team, and the Zimbabwe senior National Men’s Team to glory, Mangongo insisted that Nigeria has good, talented cricketers and those with potentials to become great performers in the sport.

When fielding questions from sports journalists at the ceremony, Mangongo stressed that though Nigeria is still ‘work in progress’ in the sport he however would love to see the country’s Yellow-Greens qualify to play at the 2028 Cricket World Cup.

“It is is very achievable. If you don’t have ambition, then you don’t have any business to be in sports. You must create a goal and work towards meeting that target. Yes, Nigeria is still work in progress but the talents are here and with more hard work, nothing is impossible,” observed the well-respected Zimbabwean gaffer.

He admitted to be motivated to want to help a fellow African country following the massive work that has been done by the Uyi Akpata led Board of the federation in terms of grassroots development.

“I feel motivated to help a fellow African country to take the game of cricket to the next level. So there is no better honour than to help your fellow Africans to achieve greatness in the sport.”

Mangongo also emphasised that he would also loved to be remembered for being the coach that took cricket from being a mass sports in Nigeria to a professional sport for several hundreds of players to earn a living. “ I also want to be remembered as the person that made Nigeria the best cricket playing nation in Africa.”

In his reaction, NCF President, Uyi Akpata, hinted that part of Mangongo’s brief is to help take the country’s male and female players to compete at the highest possible level in the game. “He’s also going to design a programme to refine what we are currently doing with the developmental in the grassroots. That  refinement will help with the game in the primary schools to the U15, U17  to the Youth level so that we have a huge reservoir. With the National Sports Commission planning the Intermediate Games, this will be the pipeline to continually feed the national teams with players from the grassroots.

Akpata also hinted that the Zimbabwean coach will meet with the cricket coaches with the aim to assist them to improve on their skills for imparting knowledge. 

 He stressed that it no longer a secret that Nigeria is on the path to cricket glory as the country’s performances in recent continental and global tournament have shown that “what is needed to join the best cricket playing nations in the world is just the refinement, that we believe Mangongo is bringing to bear on the job.”

An accomplished and highly respected cricket professional, Mangongo is an ICC Level 3 certified coach with extensive coaching and player development experience across different levels of the game. 

As Nigeria’s Head Coach and High-Performance Manager, Mangongo brings over  three decades wealth of experience, technical expertise and a proven track record in talent development and elite cricket management. 

In the course of his contract, he will oversee the technical development of national teams, coach education programmes, player pathways, and the implementation of high-performance structures designed to improve Nigeria’s standing in global cricket.