On Tuesday the 13th January 2026, one of the greatest inspirations on my journey as a cricketer turned 70 posthumously. I was flooded with emotions.
I remember the tall, charismatic gentleman who took me under his wings as a fresher in boarding school and modelled the game of cricket in a way no one could have bettered.
Everyone called him Flint. He was in Upper Six, Assistant School Captain, socially well established and an enormously talented cricketer. He was lordly in carriage, handsome in appearance, genial in conduct, always well dressed, and moved like a gazelle on the cricket pitch.
He played cricket not only within the laws of the game but in its spirit as well. He understood the ethics and etiquette of Cricket and lived it on and off the pitch.
Ekeocha was a cricketer’s cricketer.
Admired and loved all over the school, he had both flower and substance in quantum. Beneath his gentle exterior was a serious mind, a sharp intellect and a vastly accommodating personality.
Here I was, a class one boy (“onyo”), a green horn, sitting at the boundary opposite the great A House dormitory, fascinated and watching players all in White. They seemed like angels floating across the cricket field.
Then I noticed him (Who wouldn’t?). Armed with a red ball, he ran in with firm strides, coiled, leaped and released the ball towards the Batsman. That was how my fascination with cricket began and a friendship founded on our shared love for the game.
It began in 1975 and has not yet ended. It has taken me to far-flung corners of the globe and virtually every corner of Nigeria and Africa. Through cricket, I have met a thousand new friends, coached hundreds of fresh talents, shook the hands of presidents and princes, and sat at dinner with first ladies princesses. As long as I live, I will never forget who first ignited the fire in me at OGSS – Nnadozie Emenike Ekeocha, alias Flint.
Someday, I hope to have a Flint Ekeocha pavilion, stand or terrace in the perimeter of the school cricket pitch where it all began for me. It would be a fitting memorial and a reminder to me and many others, I believe, of how much we were blessed to have learnt from the one we called Flint.
As I write this posthumous tribute, my mind drifts back to November 1981 at the Phoenix Hotel Cricket Ground in Enugu GRA. It was a match between Anambra State and Imo State Cricket senior teams. I was bowling to Flint. That was the first time I was on the cricket field with him and we were on opposing sides – mentor versus mentee, master versus pupil. professor vs student. I delivered a ball I thought was good, and like a flash he adjusted into a good position and drove me for a huge six.
The ball landed on the pavilion facing the State Court of Appeal. It was his trademark shot – the lofted-on drive. He played it with exquisite timing and fluidity. It was a graceful shot from a graceful batsman.
Flint was pure class both as a person and as a cricketer. I will never forget that shot.
Olisa Egwuatu is Editor-in-chief of The Renaissance Online Magazine
