By CrossRiverWatch Admin
UK-based sports recycling charity, Lord’s Taverners, has donated sports kits and equipment worth over thirty (30) million to the Community Sport and Educational Development (CSED) Initiative to support grassroots sports in Nigeria.
The donation, weighing 998 kilograms, was officially received by the Trustees of CSED Initiative and marks the fifth batch of donations from Lord’s Taverners since 2019, bringing the total weight of donated sports kits to over 3,000 kilograms.
The latest batch includes equipment for cricket, netball, badminton, and football, along with casual sportswear and tracksuits.
Institutions that have previously benefited from Lord’s Taverners’ kind gesture include the Edo State Cricket Association, ABU Zaria’s cricket team, the Internally Displaced Persons Uhogua cricket team, and Cameroonian refugees in Ogoja, Cross River State.
Selected schools in Delta, Edo, Akwa Ibom, and Taraba States have also received free cricket kits through the initiative.
Representatives from CSED Initiative, Lord’s Taverners, and the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF) highlighted the significant role the donations have played in developing young cricketers. They noted that several players from Nigeria’s female cricket team, which recently competed in the T20 U-19 Cricket World Cup in Malaysia, had previously benefited from donated kits.
Nine out of the fifteen cricketers are players from Edo State whose Cricket Association received 250 kilograms of donated cricket kits from the initiative in April 2019. The Initiative has provided cricket equipment to a project that supported two cricketers from Akwa Ibom State, who also played for Nigeria in the Malaysian tournament.
Speaking about the latest donation, CSED Initiative representative Edema Fuludu emphasized the impact on grassroots sports and teacher training.
Edema Fuludu during press time said the new batch of donated equipment from Lord’s Taverners will enable them to empower three thousand children and youths in respect of supporting some of their basic sports kits needs and as well as train three hundred Physical Education Teachers in 2025. “So, it is going to be a win-win situation for grassroots sports,” he said.
Expressing gratitude for Lord’s Taverners’ continued support, he acknowledged their contribution to reviving netball in Nigeria.
“We in CSED Initiative, will forever remain grateful for the support we have received from Lord’s Taverners. Especially in respect of the sport of netball. As they have supported us with balls, bibs, netball jerseys, T-shirts and skirts. These donated netball kits gave us the courage to strive to revive the game of netball in Nigeria through our ongoing ‘Project 2027’ drive where we have trained and equipped more than three hundred and seventy P.E. Teachers and community leaders.”
However, he expressed sadness that the sports kit recycling project will end in March 2025, despite its significant contribution to grassroots sports.
Upon receiving the donated items at the CSED Initiative’s Niger Delta base, the National Coordinator assured Dave Pemberton, Project Manager of Lord’s Taverners, that the sports kits would be distributed free of charge to selected schools and vulnerable community groups – IDPs and asylum seekers/refugees, they currently work with, as well as new sets of schools and communities who will be expected to put the donated kit into good use.
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