Nigeria needs to develop potential in sports, says baseball official

By Olanrewaju Akojede

An international Field Officer for Baseball/Softball, Lanre Bolarinwa, on Saturday called on stakeholders in sports to initiate deliberate plans to realise Nigeria’s potential in sports.

Bolarinwa made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the ongoing West Africa Little League tournament in Lagos.

The Melbourne, Australia-based Baseball/Softball official, opined that Nigeria, blessed with a huge population and human resources, should dictate more of what happened in sports worldwide.

NAN reports that Bolarinwa, consultant to the West Africa Little League being held at Igbobi College, Yaba, commended the organisation of the tournament.

“We have had a good outing here at the West Africa Little League tournament, which shows or speaks much of the abundance of talents we have in Nigeria.

“Nigeria is not short of talents because we have the population, we are talking about a country of about 250 million people blessed with talents.

“What we need now is good structures to harness what we have in abundance. In Australia where I am based and other countries, they have viable structures to develop their sports from the grassroots.

“We need to replicate what other advanced countries are doing by raising future talents from the catch-them-young programmes like this West Africa Little League tournament,” he said.

Bolarinwa also said the private sector needed to do more by investing in sports rather than leaving it to the government.

“Over there what we have is private sector investment in sports, while the government focuses on policies and provides the needed infrastructure.

“Unfortunately, we have not done much in having a good structure because we still leave everything to government to sponsor.

“We can raise talents out of Nigeria that can play as professionals abroad just like what we have in football, what we need is good infrastructure and right structure to develop the game.

“We have materials just like what we have seen the children display here, but the question is, can these children compete with those in the Europe? This is a begging question,” he said.

Bolarinwa added that the maiden West Africa Little League tournament could be the spring board needed to launch the game to limelight in Nigeria.

“Baseball/Softball have good presence in developed countries and even in America, all of the past presidents passed through the Little League competition including, Barak Obama.

“Now, the game is gaining momentum in Nigeria and we need to do more and encourage the game among the young ones who can play professionally abroad.

“I have helped in introducing Baseball/Softball in some African states and the game is gaining momentum in some Southern African countries,” he said.

NAN reports that Lagos is playing host to the maiden edition of the West Africa Little League tournament ongoing at Igbobi College.

The West Africa Little League tournament kicked off on April 11, while the finals holds on Saturday, April 15 with two African countries, Cote de Ivoire and Togo in attendance, competing with six teams from Nigeria.

The winners and runners up of the Baseball/Softball tournament will represent Africa at the Africa European Little League Series in Poland in July.

(NAN)