No fewer than 300 girls are expected to feature in the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF) Women's Criio festival billed for Friday in Abuja. Ehis Uadiale, NCF coordinator for the event, said the festival which is sanctioned by the International Cricket Council (ICC) is aimed at promoting the game across the female folk. Uadiale, who stated this at a news conference ahead of the National Women's Championship, said Nigeria and Tanzania were the only African countries selected to pilot the programme. 'In 2023, the NCF was awarded the Best Female Initiative Programme by the ICC and it was from efforts to introduce the sport to over 25,000 girls in Zamfara. 'Following the National women's team success at the African Games in Ghana and the women's qualification to the U19 World Cup in Malaysia, ICC also found Nigeria worthy to pilot the criio programme. 'Criio is a concept by ICC. It is a modified way of playing cricket out of the usual hardball cricket. Criio means you can play cricket anywhere, even in your l iving room. 'With the aim of spreading the game to the female folk, Nigeria and Tanzania were selected among countries in Africa to pilot the programme,'' Uadiale said. The NCF official also added that the festival would be replicated in other parts of the country with the aim of creating more awareness of the game. 'We are looking at infusing the criio festival with the ongoing Women's championship since it is about women. See also Paris Olympics: We're ready to surpass previous achievements - NOC 'We are inviting schools with over 300 girls expected to participate, even representatives of the ICC will be present at the event. It is going to be fun, exciting and worth the time. 'We are also going to replicate this in other parts of the country but we are using Abuja to launch the programme. 'For us, this is a pat on the back from ICC, because we have raised the bar high in terms of grassroots development, especially for women's cricket and we only hope to keep improving,'' he said. On her part, Adaor a Sdyney-Jack, the brand ambassador for women's cricket, said the success of the women's game has ushered in more partners for the federation. 'Nigeria is seen as a priority country by the ICC and this is due to the success of the women's game but then we have filled in the gaps that borders around the right partnership, welfare and intervention for the female players. 'We have had a lot of inroads and calls from partners and by January 2025 we are looking at three new major partners. 'I don't want to let the cat out of the bag, but they are very huge. 'Some of them will be attending the criio festival but the priorities are not just for the criio festival or the Women's championship but also for the U19 World Cup in 2025,'' Sdyney-Jack added. On his part, Sani Mohammed, the Secretary General, of the federation welcomed all participating teams to the women's championship, admonishing them on the rules of fair play. See also Hosts Cote d'Ivoire emerge winners of 2023 AFCON Teams Anambra, Edo, Kogi, Gomb e, Akwa Ibom, Lagos, Ekiti and Kaduna are participating in the tournament expected to end on Sunday at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium. Source: News Agency of Nigeria