Cricketing world mourns Raymond van Schoor

THE cricketing world has been rocked by the untimely death of Namibian star player Raymond van Schoor.

The 25-year-old Van Schoor suffered a stroke in a match against Free State in Windhoek on 15 November and was taken to hospital by ambulance. Van Schoor’s condition deteriorated, as he went into ICU before passing away at 19h17 on Friday evening.

The president of Cricket Namibia, Richard Frankle confirmed the sad news shortly afterwards.

“It is with deep regret and sorrow that I announce the passing of Raymond van Schoor at 19h17 Namibian time on Friday the 20th November 2015. On behalf of Cricket Namibia, I express my most sincere condolences to the entire Van Schoor and La Cock families. Raymond was a tremendous asset to Cricket Namibia and the national cricket team. He was taken far too early from us. We however accept that Almighty God needed him to represent the Heavenly Angels! May his soul rest in peace!” he said.

By Saturday morning tributes and condolences from all over the cricketing world were pouring in on social media, with messages from top players, administrators, team mates, opponents, friends and cricket followers.

South African star AB de Villiers, currently ranked the top batsman in the world, led tributes from South Africa, which included other Protea players Vernon Philander, Alviro Petersen, Dane Piedt, Robin Peterson and Cameron Delport.

Other cricketing greats like Shahid Afridi of Pakistan and Rahul Dravid of India sent their condolences, as did numerous players from around the world that played against Raymond.

They included Nial and Kevin O’ Brien of Ireland, Pieter Seelaar, Wesley Barresi and Ben Cooper of the Netherlands, West Indies coach Phil Simmons and numerous of his Namibian team mates and friends.

The International Cricket Council’s Chief Executive David Richardson led tributes from some administrators of the game which included Tony Irish, executive chairman of the Federation of International Cricketers Association, ICC referee Dev Govindjee, and cricket associations from Nepal, Hong Kong and Jersey.

Govindjee also posted a photo of players of Hong Kong and Oman holding a minute’s silence before their match in Abu Dhabi on Saturday morning.

Van Schoor was a great player and one of few Namibians who have excelled on the international stage in recent years.

He made his debut for Namibia as a 17-year-old in 2007 against North West in the South African CSA competition and a week later made his international debut in the Intercontinental Cup against Canada, scoring 46 and 2 in an eight wicket victory.

He soon established himself in the Namibian team and became a vital player in the years that followed.

He went on to play 92 first-class matches for Namibia, scoring 4 303 runs at an average of 27 40 including five centuries and 20 half-centuries with a highest score of 157 against Bermuda in 2010.

In the same match he shared an opening wicket partnership of 357 runs with Ewald Steenkamp which is still the highest opening partnership in Intercontinental Cup history.

Despite only being 25, he was Namibia’s most capped player in all formats of the game, playing a total of 239 matches in first class, List A and T20 matches for Namibia, while he scored more than 8 000 runs in total for Namibia.

In First Class matches he is second on the all time run scorers list behind Craig Williams; in List A matches he has scored the third most runs behind Gerrie Snyman and Williams; while he has scored the most runs in T20 matches for Namibia.

He is also one of only three Namibians (along with Snyman and Williams) to have scored 4 000 First Class, 2 500 List A and 1 000 T20 runs.

One of his career highlights came in 2012 when he won the Player of the Tournament award at the ICC World T20 Qualifier in the UAE, after topping the batting averages with 324 runs at an average of 54,00 and later that year he won Namibia’s Cricketer of the Year award.

He also captained Namibia on 40 occasions from 2011 to 2013. He was a wicket keeper-batsman at the beginning of his career and later he was also a medium pace bowler, taking 52 wickets in all formats of the game.

In an age of information overload, Sunrise is The Namibian’s morning briefing, delivered at 6h00 from Monday to Friday. It offers a curated rundown of the most important stories from the past 24 hours – occasionally with a light, witty touch. It’s an essential way to stay informed. Subscribe and join our newsletter community.