Namibian cricket is increasingly making its mark on the international stage with four of its top players jetting off to Nepal yesterday to compete in the Nepal Premier League.
National captain Gerhard Erasmus, all-rounders Nicol Loftie Eaton and JJ Smit and pace bowler Ruben Trumpelmann have been signed up by Nepalese franchises to compete in the second edition of the tournament, following its inauguration last year.
Erasmus and Loftie-Eaton both played in the inaugural tournament last year, but Loftie-Eaton has since been signed up by the defending champions, the Janakpur Bolts, after representing the Chitwan Rhinos last year.
Erasmus will once again play for the Kathmandu Ghorkas, while Trumpelmann and Smit will play for the Lumbini Lions.
Loftie-Eaton had a great season with both bat and ball, playing a key role in Namibia’s qualification for a fourth consecutive T20 World Cup. On 30 September he once again entered the record books when he took four wickets in four balls against Malawi, to become only the fifth player to accomplish the feat in international men’s cricket.
Last year he entered the record books after hitting the fastest century in T20 internationals, off only 33 balls, although that has been broken since then by Sahil Chauhan of Estonia who achieved the feat off only 27 balls against Cyprus.
Shortly before his departure on Wednesday, Loftie-Eaton said he was excited about the opportunity.
“I’m feeling very positive – I’ve played some good cricket lately. It’s an amazing experience to play in front of 15 000 spectators there in Nepal and I can’t wait to play. They also renovated the stadium recently with proper seating and upgraded floodlights so it should be a great experience,” he said.
“It’s a great honour to be signed up by the Janakpur Bolts – they won the league last year and were the best team on and off the field so I’m looking forward to playing for them,” he added.
The Bolts are coached by former West Indian batting great Shivnarine Chanderpaul and include South Africa stars Imran Tahir and Wayne Parnell and Loftie-Eaton said he was looking gaining experience from them.
“I’m looking forward to playing with Wayne Parnell and especially Imran Tahir – I think I’ll be able to learn a lot from him to improve my leg-spin bowling. I’m also looking forward to working with our coach Shivnarine Chanderpaul who was a great batter,” he said.
The CEO of Cricket Namibia, Johan Muller said they supported their players abroad, adding that it will ultimately improve the standard of Namibian cricket.
“We encourage our players to play abroad because they will get international exposure and experience in different conditions which they can plough back at home to help improve the local game,” he said.
The national side, meanwhile, is hard at work, preparing for next year’s T20 World Cup which will be held in India and Sri Lanka from 7 February to 8 March.
The national squad held three inter-squad matches this week between Namibia and Namibia A and with competition for places to the world cup hotting up, several players put in some good performances.
Namibia won all three encounters but Namibia A steadily improved as the series progressed.
Namibia won the first match on Monday by seven wickets, with Smit scoring 60 not out and Loftie-Eaton 40, as they comfortably chased down Namibia A’s total of 139, with WP Myburgh top-scoring with 34 runs.
On Tuesday, Namibia won by 36 runs after posting 231/5, while Namibia A replied with 195/5. Jan Frylinck (86), Louren Steenkamp (62) and Trumpelmann (31 not out) were Namibia’s top batters, while Dylan Leicher (66), Jan-Izak de Villers (48) and JC Balt (39 not out) were Namibia A’s top batters.
On Wednesday, Namibia won by 17 runs after scoring 135/9 and then restricting the A team to 118/3.
WP Myburgh (43) and Shaun Fouche (36) were the A team’s top batters, while Loftie-Eaton scored 50 for Namibia.
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