RAYMOND van Schoor was named as Namibia’s Cricket Player of the Season at Cricket Namibia’s annual prize-giving ceremony on Saturday evening.
Middle-order batsman Van Schoor, who is the vice captain of the national team, beat captain Sarel Burger and all-rounder Christi Viljoen to the award.After initially making his mark as an opening batsman in the team, Van Schoor was moved down to the middle order in the three-day competitions, although he was retained as an opener in the T20 format of the game.His best performance came at the T20 World Cup qualifiers in Dubai when he scored 324 runs at an average of 54,00 to win the Player of the Series award.Van Schoor also scored 146 runs at an average of 36,50 in the ICC 50 Over competition; and 157 runs at an average of 39,25 in the ICC Intercontinental Cup.In the Cricket South Africa competition, Van Schoor scored 579 runs at an average of 32,16 in the three-day competition; 223 runs at an average of 44,6 in the 50 over competition; and 101 runs at an average of 25,25 in the T20 competition.Van Schoor was a popular choice with his fellow cricketers as he also won the Namibian Player’s Player of the Year award. He was not present at the awards ceremony since he is currently playing club cricket in England and his trophy was received by his father Melt, who is also a former Namibian international cricketer.Tim Ekandjo of Cricket Namibia’s main sponsors, MTC, congratulated Cricket Namibia on a successful season which he said had many highlights.Ekandjo said he was aware that their annual sponsorship of N$2,5 million was not enough for them to achieve their goals, and once again called on other corporates to sponsor sport in Namibia.The president of Cricket Namibia, Francois Erasmus, said he was proud of their achievements and that they would continue to strive to do better. He also committed himself to accelerate the development of the game amongst the previously disadvantaged.The other winners on the evening were as follows: Under-15 Cricketer of the Year – Michau du Preez; Under-17 Cricketer of the Year – Daniel Seha; Under-19 Cricketer of the Year – Gerhard Erasmus; Girl Cricketer of the Year – Jasmin Kahn; Women’s Cricketer of the Year – Anneri van Schoor; Most Improved Woman – Evelyn Kejarukua; Administrator of the Year – Abe Louw; Umpire of the year – Jeff Luck. During the season under review Cricket Namibia also won the ICC Africa Development Programme of the Year as well as the Development Programme of the Year at the Namibia Spot Awards. – namibiasport.com.na
