NAMIBIAN cricket will make history on Thursday when they begin their campaign in the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Sunfoil Three-Day Cup competition against Western Province.
The match will take place at the Sparta Recreational Ground in Walvis Bay, which is the first time that a CSA match will be hosted at the coast.
According to Cricket Namibia CEO Donovan Zealand, it forms part of their efforts to try to develop the game.
“It’s important for the development of the game and spreading it to other parts of Namibia. The pitch has played beautifully of late and we expect that it will provide an even battle between bat and ball,” he said.
Namibia has found the going tough in the Sunfoil Three Day Cup, coming last for the past three years and according to Zealand it’s important that they improve their performances.
“Our performances in this competition over the past few years were very poor, but we need to improve and this weekend’s match against WP is very important,” he said.
“We are excited and looking forward to the game. We had a good start to the season when we beat WP in the T20 Africa Cup last month, but the three-day game will obviously be a different ball game,” he added.
Namibia will host two matches at the Sparta Ground with the other being against Kwazulu Natal Inland from 24 to 26 November. The rest of Namibia’s home matches will be hosted at the Wanderers ground in Windhoek.
The CSA competition will once again provide vital preparation for Namibia’s campaign in the Intercontinental Cup, which resumes next weekend with an away match against Papua New Guinea.
“If we do well against Province it will boost the team ahead of their trip to Papua New Guinea next week,” Zealand said.
Namibia leave for PNG next week for their four-day Intercontinental Cup match that starts on 17 October and two World Cricket League matches on 22 and 24 October.
Namibia is also struggling in the Intercontinental Cup and is currently second last on the log with one win and two defeats from their opening three matches.
With the bottom two teams being relegated automatically, Zealand said their main aim would be to climb off the foot of the table.
“Our position on the Intercontinental Cup log is a bit of a concern so we need to improve. Our main focus now will be to get out of the bottom of the log and at least to finish amongst the top six, who will automatically qualify for the next Intercontinental Cup,” he said.
Zealand said their preparations for the WP match had gone well, while several senior players had also performed well in the local Premier League which started a month ago.
“We’ve got an extended squad and we’ve given enough players a chance to vie for places in the Namibian team and that’s resulted in a fine competitive spirit, with the players realising they need to perform to make the team. If you look at the results in club matches you can see that the national players have stepped up their performances,” he said.
Some of the senior players who have performed well in the Premier League in recent weeks include Gerrie Snyman, Nicolaas Scholtz, Stephen Baard and Bernard Scholtz.
The squad to play WP in the Sunfoil Three-Day Cup from Thursday till Saturday, and the CSA One Day Challenge on 9 October is as follows:
Sarel Burger (captain), Stephen Baard, Pikky Ya France, Gerrie Snyman, Craig Williams, Nicolaas Scholtz, JP Kotze, Zane Green, Wian van Vuuren, JJ Smit, Jan Freylinck, Colin Peake, Karl Birkenstock and Bernard Scholtz.
