In late November, our game's fledgling existence in former French West African colony of Benin (formerly Dahomey) received a boost when an under 19 team representing the Lagos based Howzat Cricket Foundation made the two hour journey to Cotonou, the country's political, commercial and financial centre.

Although a sizeable number of Nigerians live and do business in the coastal port of 450,000 people, Cotonou's Indian expatriates form the basis of the 36 member Benin Cricket Club and it was eleven Indians who took the field against Howzat.

According to Howzat official, Olisa Eguwatu, the young Nigerians were "feted, honoured and welcomed" by a "crowd that was impressive and support was loud and vocal. The atmosphere was lively, gay and enjoyable."

Benin CC won the toss and Shoilendra, the team's captain, elected to bowl on a matting pitch on the reasonably flat surface of a football stadium. Bowling was from one end only.

In a 30 over-a-side affair Howzat scored 123 runs before being bowled out in 26.4 overs. Top scorers for Howzat were Endurance Ofem (24) and Ademola Onikoyi (21) with Sanjeed, a slow bowler, causing havoc for Benin with a haul of 5-16 from six overs.

The youthful Nigerians approached the task of defending 123 positively and appeared to have the match in hand with Benin teetering at 7-56.

Stage fright affected Howzat and a plethora of wides handed the match to Benin CC, with Prabhu (17), Rajesh (16) and Lal playing vital cameo roles to secure a deserved victory.

For their exploits Ofem took the 50 dollar batting award, while Sanjeed earned a similar amount for his bowling.

It was Benin CC's first match in its six month existence against external opposition - usual cricket activity comprises splitting those who turn up at the National Stadium on Sundays into two equal teams who then play 20-over-a-sde matches.

At the moment the club has two Beninese players and although a few curious Beninese stop and watch matches, cricket at this stage is an exotic oddity to most Beninese.

Although articles about their activities appear in local newspapers, at this stage the intention of those involved in Benin CC is to consolidate interest amongst the expatriate community before any potential moves to entice the Beninese sporting public.

The club receives solid support from the Indian community in Cotonou in terms of finance and purchase of equipment.

© ICC 2002