Namibia can expect tough competition when they open their 2014/15 cricket season with the inaugural Africa Sixes Challenge at SuperSport Park in Pretoria this weekend.
The tournament was recently introduced by the Africa Cricket Association to provide more competition for African nations and will see Namibia up in action against Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and emerging teams from South Africa and Zimbabwe.
This will be followed by the 50-over 2014 Africa Cup which will take place at Sahara Park Willowmore in Johannesburg from 8 to 13 September.
The CEO of the Africa Cricket Association (ACA), Cassim Suliman said they hoped to make it an annual event.
“I am envisaging that this will become an annual event. It is hoped that we can grow it into a tournament where the best African cricketers are competing against each other on equal terms. As we all know, it is only through the furnace of fierce competition that we can temper the talents of our cricketers. The recent win by Zimbabwe against the top-ranked ODI team in the world, Australia proved this,” he said.
Namibia go into the tournament with a new captain in Nicolaas Scholtz and without top batsman Craig Williams who announced his retirement due to work commitments. Williams’ experience and explosive batting will be missed but his departure will provide opportunities for some younger players in the squad like Stephen Baard, Gerhard Erasmus or Michau du Preez to try and claim the number four position.
Experienced players like Scholtz, Sarel Burger, Gerrie Snyman, Raymond van Schoor and Christi Viljoen will lead Namibia’s assault, while upcoming youngsters like JJ Smit, Tiaan Snyman and JP Kotze will need to step up and be counted.
Both South Africa and Zimbabwe have entered teams made up of predominantly young and emerging players.
Zimbabwe will be captained by the experienced Malcolm Waller, who also played in the current Tri-Nations series against South Africa and Australia, but the rest of the team consists of emerging young players.
The South African team which will be captained by the 23-year-old Bokang Mosena, includes other up-and-coming players like Mbulelo Mudaza, Mpilo Njoloza, Tian Koekemoer and Thomas Kannemeyer.
The Kenyan team will be captained by Rakep Patel and includes several stalwarts like Collins Obuya, Nelson Odhiambo, Hiren Varaiya and Shem Ngoche.
The Ugandan team is captained by Frank Nsubuga, while the former South African batting great Peter Kirsten is now their technical director, and the Tanzanian team is captained by Hamisi Abdallah.
Namibia open their campaign against Kenya at 10h00 on Saturday morning while they take on South Africa at 14h10. All the match will be televised live on SuperSport.
On Sunday they play Tanzania at 10h00, Uganda at 11h40 and Zimbabwe at 15h00. The final is scheduled for 16h10 on Sunday.
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