THE Cricket World Cup Division 2 series that Namibia was supposed to compete in in Spain next month has been postponed to next year due to the worsening Covid-19 situation in Namibia.
The International Cricket Council recently announced that the series involving Scotland, Namibia and Nepal had been postponed due to the worsening situation in Namibia, ‘where rising Covid-19 cases have impacted training preparations and the tightening of restrictions have reduced travel options.’
“This series – which forms part of League 2, which is two steps away from the Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 – has been postponed to July 2022, after exploring options to also stage the event in Spain this summer which became infeasible,” it added in a press release.
Namibia’s national coach Pierre de Bruyn yesterday said it was a big disappointment.
“The cancellation of the World Cricket League Division 2 series is obviously a disappointment, for everyone and not just us for. A lot of hard work went into it, to get the series up and running, but as we have seen over the past 16 months, Covid has the last say, and that was the case here as well,” he said.
The tournament was initially supposed to take place in Scotland, but was later shifted to Spain due to Covid-19 and was due to take place early next month. According to De Bruyn, the Namibian team was preparing to depart when they had to abruptly change their plans after several new Covid cases were detected.
“At the last moment when we just had to book our visas, four or five of our players got Covid as well as some of our staff and coaching staff. The health and safety of our players comes first and that’s what we had to look at first. It’s a disappointment, but it has been postponed to next year, when it will be held in Scotland, and we are looking forward to it,” he said.
“I think the next three to four weeks are going to be frustrating for any sportsman, where you have regulations that don’t allow you to do want you want to do, and that is to play cricket, so it will be a test for each player again to get through it, and then when we get through it, to just continue with our work,” he added.
The International Cricket Council, meanwhile, announced that the T20 World Cup 2021 has been shifted to the United Arab Emirates and Oman, with the tournament set to run from 17 October to 14 November.
“The tournament was originally set to be staged in India, but had to be shifted, given the consequences of the second wave of Covid-19 on the country,” the ICC reported on its website.
The BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) will remain the hosts of the event, which will now be held across four venues – Dubai International Stadium, the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, the Sharjah Stadium, and the Oman Cricket Academy Ground,” it added.
Namibia is one of eight nations that will compete in the preliminary stage of the competition, with the others being Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland, Oman and Papua New Guinea.
Four of these teams will advance to the Super 12s stage, where they will join the eight top-ranked nations in two groups of six, with the top two in each progressing to the semifinals.
The acting ICC CEO Geoff Allardice said: “Our priority is to deliver the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 safely, in full and in its current window. Whilst we are incredibly disappointed not to be hosting the event in India, the decision gives us the certainty we need to stage the event in a country that is a proven international host of multi-team events in a bio-secure environment. We will work closely with the BCCI, the Emirates Cricket Board and Oman Cricket to ensure fans can enjoy a wonderful celebration of cricket.”
De Bruyn, meanwhile, said they had organised several tours in August and September to serve as preparation for the T20 World Cup.
“We have organised a lot of cricket from August onwards. We are talking to Zimbabwe so that their A team can come to Namibia and that looks very promising. At the end of August the Titans will come to Namibia, and then directly after that tour we will go to Bloemfontein, to play against the Knights, so it’s exciting to see what is coming up,” he said.
“I believe that will be good enough for our preparations for the World Cup and we sincerely hope that there won’t be any more setbacks in August,”he added.
