Windhoek
Cricket Namibia (CN) yesterday unveiled a strong 14-member squad to represent the country in the next round of the ICC Intercontinental Cup and World Cricket League against Afghanistan and Nepal, respectively.
Stephen Baard will skipper the team that includes two highly gifted young cricketers in the shape of Zane Green and Lohan Louwrens. Both players impressed the national selectors during the ICC U19 World Cup in January earlier this year.
The team traveling entourage, headed by national coach Dayanand Thakur, departs for India tomorrow and takes on Afghanistan in their third I-Cup four-day match of the season (April 10 to 13). India was chosen as the playing venue because of security reasons.
So far the Eagles have won against Hong Kong in their opening match by 114 runs, but succumbed to Ireland in their second match – by an innings and 107 runs. Namibia sits in 7th place on the log standings, but enjoys a game in hand over all other contestants.
Ireland tops the log table.
The ICC Intercontinental Cup is an international first-class cricket tourney, featuring associate members. The tourney runs from 2015 to 2017. The winner of the 2015-17 I-Cup will play four five-day matches against the bottom-ranked Test nation, known as the 2018 ICC Test Challenge and should the winner of the Intercontinental Cup go on to win the ICC Test Challenge they will become the 11th Test nation.
So far, Namibia has won one game and lost three, leaving them 6th on the log table. As with the I-Cup though, they have played fewer matches than most of the other nations. Nepal occupies the wooden spoon the Netherlands tops the standings.
The World Cricket League is a series of international one-day matches for national teams without ODI status. All associate and affiliate members of the ICC are eligible to compete in the league system, which features a promotion and relegation structure between divisions.
The league system has two main aims: to provide a qualification system for the World
Cup that can be accessed by all associate and affiliate members, and as an ideal chance for these sides to play international one-dayers against teams of similar standards.
The squad is as follows:
Stephen Baard (capt), Picky Ya France, Nicolaas Scholtz, JJ Smit, Tangeni Lungameni, Christopher Coombe, Bernard Scholtz, Zhivago Groenewald, Gerhard Erasmus, Gerrie Snyman, JP Kotze, Zane Green, Lohan Louwrens and Sarel Burger. Head coach: Dayanand Thakur, assistant coach: Bjorn Kotze and fitness coach: Clinton Henry.