The preparation done ahead of the International Cricket Council's (ICC) Trophy, where Namibia was supposed to qualify for the event, was immense.

The Namibian cricket authorities and the players undoubtedly worked very hard ahead of this event, and despite winning four of their seven matches in Ireland, it was not good enough to see their entry to the continental showpiece.

This is indeed a hard lesson for Namibian cricket in general, as all within the cricket sphere were optimistic of making it into at least the top three to qualify for the 2006 World Cup.

Now it appears that all the hard work by the administrators and the players, and the enormous amounts of money spent to get the team to the ICC Trophy in Ireland, has gone to waste.

Namibia made its debut at the 2003 Cricket World Cup in South Africa, and if it had qualified for the West Indies, the players would have been better prepared and more experienced than the first time.

Cricket, which has been hailed by many as one of the best organised sports in the country, has unfortunately not seen a lot of young talent coming through the ranks.

The bulk of the squad that competed in South Africa also formed the core of the team that toured Ireland recently.

The side showed considerable improvement after the 2003 World Cup by beating some of the African nations that have a long cricket history, while they have also put up good fights against foreign visiting sides such as England, Pakistan A, Bangladesh and several South African provincial sides.

But the growth and strength of the national team can only be measured by being consistent and most importantly, by ensuring that they keep the spot in the World Cup that they gained in 2003.

With Namibia not qualifying for the 2006 World Cup, it means that the game has gone a few steps backwards.

But ironically, their performances ahead of the ICC Trophy in Ireland showed that they have improved.

Now, the cricket administrators should ask themselves whether they had done enough to ensure that the team qualifies.

On the other hand, the players should also ask themselves whether they did the job at hand efficiently or did they become complacent after running over several African countries, with the exception of South Africa, which they have not played to date.

A frank approach from the administrators is to revisit their junior teams and start preparing players who can automatically take over from the current crop.

Cricket is surely not like football where a coach can field a totally different team if he wishes, of course considering what opposition he faces.

But in cricket, players need to play more matches to gain experience and to ultimately become sharper, wiser and carry the demanding weight, especially on international level.

At the moment, the Namibia Cricket Board (NCB) has done little to give the youngsters a chance to compete on a regular basis against their counterparts in Southern Africa or elsewhere in the world.

A lot of focus has been on the senior team because they are the cream of the crop and all efforts were directed towards making them qualify for the 2006 World Cup.

True, it was good to have a concerted effort from all the stakeholders to support the senior team, but this has also negatively affected the juniors, as they have not been exposed to the maximum.

The other aspect is the absence of any black players in the side so far.

A lot of people have argued that it is a race thing, but are there really good black players out there.

If they are out there, why are they not selected and as in any other country, this should be done on merit.

The Namibia Sport Commission (NSC) is currently developing a quota system for the country where certain sport codes will be required to include a specific number of black players.

The word merit should be the key.

Lastly, it will be advisable for Namibia to look to South Africa to develop the game by inviting coaches and organising matches for players on a regular basis.

Although there were several former South African players and coaches who conducted clinics here, and not withstanding the capabilities of the local coaches and administrators, Namibia should forge closer ties with this country to have a formidable cricket foundation and winning teams.

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