Maurice Kambukwe
Namibia’s senior cricket team head coach Pierre de Bruyn says it’s too early to press panic buttons as far as the fate of the 2020 T20 World Cup is concerned, after chairperson of Cricket Australia (CA) Earl Eddings was reported confessing that hosting the global cricket showpiece appears unlikely because of the persistent Covid-19 pandemic.
Eddings recently told BBC Sport that this year’s edition of the T20 Cricket World Cup is unlikely to take place in October as planned because of the coronavirus. With global Covid-19 cases still on the rise, Eddings admitted that it will almost be impossible to safely accommodate all participating countries without endangering them.
World cricket governing body the International Cricket Council (ICC) has been in talks with member associations and various alternatives are currently being weighed. The T20 World Cup is scheduled for Australia between 18 October and 15 November.
Namibia is set to make a historic appearance at the 2020 T20 World Cup in Australia, following the country’s maiden campaign at the 2003 Cricket World Cup in South Africa, where they lost all their games. Namibia has since featured in each edition of the ICC Intercontinental Cup. As of April 2018, the ICC decided to grant full T20 International (T20I) status to all its members and therefore, all T20 matches played between Namibia and other ICC members are full T20I matches.
Reacting to the uncertainty hovering around the 2020 T20 World Cup, De Bruyn called for calm saying it is too early to arrive at any conclusion and thus equally too early to press panic buttons.
“There’s a lot of speculation around the World Cup and the possibilities that it might be postponed or that the ICC will still host the World Cup in Australia this October. There are a few quotes that have come out in the press, specifically from the Australian chairman [Eddings] saying he doesn’t see it happening, especially with 16 teams that would need to enter the country. I think it’s going to be a very big challenge for the ICC to host it in October, if you look around the world every country have got their challenges. Most borders are still close, most countries are still heavily locked down and it’s frustrating not to know what’s happening because you need to prepare as a team, mentally and physically,” said de Bruyn.
He, however, believes it is too soon to determine anything until the ICC officially pronounce itself in the issue. Therefore, they will continue preparing and remain in top shape with the hope of competing at the 2020 T20 World Cup, once it’s declared safe by the ICC.
“It would be another challenge for the ICC to fit in two World Cups in one year [2023], there’s going to be World Cup qualifiers, that’s another challenge that they are sitting with, it’s a jam-packed schedule for 2023…So the ICC have got a lot of thinking to do but unfortunately they probably feel that they can’t do anything because of restrictions. All we can do as a team is to prepare as if the World Cup is happening, so you don’t go in the competition unprepared and that’s what we are currently doing until we get the thumbs up or thumbs down then we can make further decisions on our schedule for 2020.”
– mkmbukwe@nepc.com.na