A 14-man team has been selected to represent Namibia at the World T20 Africa C Qualifying tournament that takes place in Gaberone, Botswana from 26 October to 4 November.
The event is the first of three qualifying tournaments which will be held before the World T20 Cup takes place in Australia in 2020. Africa has been divided into three sub regions, namely A (representing west Africa), B (representing central and eastern Africa) and C (representing southern Africa). In sub region C, Namibia will be joined by Lesotho, Mozambique, St Helena, Malawi, Swaziland and Botswana.
The top two teams of each African region will qualify for an African final, where the top two teams will advance to the final qualifying round for 14 teams which will be held in November 2019.
Here the top two African teams will be joined by six other regional qualifiers from Asia, the Americas, East Asia Pacific and Europe, as well as the six teams of the 2016 World T20 Cup which were not ranked in the top ten of the tournament. These countries are Scotland, Zimbabwe, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Oman and Ireland.
The top six teams at this final qualifier will advance to the World T20 Cup in Australia in October 2020.
The Namibian selectors have named a young team that includes several exciting batting prospects.
They include CCD Tigers’; explosive 17-year-old batsman Nico Loftie-Eaton, who scored six successive centuries at the APS Cricket Festival in August; United’;s brilliant opener Lohan Louwrens, Michau du Preez, Niko Davin, Zane Green and the captain Jan Frylinck.
Pikky Ya France is also recalled to the squad after showing fine form for CCD Tigers in the Premier League, while Wanderers’; opener Wessel Myburgh makes the squad for the first time.
The bowling attack will be led by pace bowlers Frylinck, Mika Mutumbe, Tangeni Lungameni and Christopher Coombe, while the spinners include Bernard Scholtz, Colin Peake and Zhivago Groenewald.
Dee Thakur is the coach and Gareth Cloete the manager.
