Oshana ready to defend

DEFENDING champions Oshana wasted little time as they named their 20 players charged with retaining The Namibian Newspaper Cup trophy when the competition starts in Windhoek on Friday.

The region is among the five regions that has confirmed their line-ups of 20 players who will be vying for top honours in the competition which takes place over the Easter weekend at the Sam Nujoma Stadium in Katutura.The other regions that have named their teams are Erongo, Omaheke, Otjozondjupa and Kavango. The teams from the other regions were not yet available yesterday.Oshana, ironically the smallest region in the country, tucked away in the northwestern part of Namibia, made history by winning the first Newspaper Cup in 2007.Oshana were only successful in their seventh attempt and will hope to emulate Omaheke and Khomas, which have won the cup twice.Omaheke hit the double in 2001 and 2002, while Khomas made it two in a row during the 2003 and 2004 editions.All those tournaments were held at different towns across the country and provided the regions with no home-ground advantage.In fact, in 2001, Omaheke won it in Windhoek, while they scooped it again in Otjiwarongo the following year, while Khomas won it at Gobabis and again in Oshakati in their consecutive wins.A win for Oshana will be special too, only if they can win it in the back-to-back fashion like their predecessors, but that will be determined by the calibre of players they will bring to Windhoek this time.In 2007, Oshana won most of its matches, while the double title winners struggled considerably despite Khomas making it to the final.The playing field will now be levelled for all the regions as they are only expected to field under-20 players.In the past, a few over-aged players were allowed to compete, but organisers have decided to give a chance to all the upcoming players to be exposed.The competition will this time see a crop of new players who have been selected for the first time coming through the regional ranks.It will also provide them the chance to impress the national selectors and will most certainly be an opportunity for them to showcase their skills to premiership coaches.But for Khomas, it will be home-ground advantage and they ought to give it their best shot if they want to go for a triple.Khomas has not yet announced its final list of 20 players, but the executive committee members indicated that it would be ready by today. corry@namibian.com.na