By Carlos Kambaekwa
WINDHOEK
Despite their failure to win the ICC World Cricket League Mini Competition on home soil, Namibian cricketers secured themselves qualification for the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers to be hosted by the United Arab Emirates in 2009.
Hosts Namibia ended in overall 3rd place after dispatching Denmark 221 for the loss of 6 wickets in the third place play-off at the United Ground in Windhoek on Saturday.
The United Arab Emirates kept their early promising run in the 8-day tournament intact when they saw off Oman by 68 runs at the Wanderers to win the tournament, while Uganda were all out on 335 in their 4th place play-off against Argentina to take the wooden spoon in the ICC World Cricket League Division 2 One-Day Internationals.
The top four teams from the preliminaries earned automatic qualification for the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers in the United Arab Emirates in 2009, while the remaining two would be thrown another lifeline at the ICC World Cricket League Division 3 at a yet to be named venue with the date set for early 2009.
Kenya won the inaugural ICC World Cricket League Division 1 in February earlier this year after beating Scotland in the final by 8 wickets in Nairobi, while Uganda saw off Argentina by 91 runs in the Division 3 event hosted by Australia in May this year.
Namibia last qualified for the ICC Cricket World Cup finals in Cape Town, South Africa in 2003 where the Namibian amateurs gave a good account of themselves against the more illustrious test playing nations which also included the likes of England.
However, Namibia narrowly missed out on qualification for the last edition of the Cricket World Cup finals in the Caribbean this year.
“Obviously, we are a bit disappointed because as hosts we dearly wanted to win the trophy and leave our mark in One-Day Internationals notably outside the top tiers, nonetheless, I’m over the moon with the manner in which the lads conducted themselves on and off the pitch during the duration of the competition,” said a delighted Laurie Pieters of the Namibian Cricket Board.
The veteran cricket guru remained upbeat about the future prospects of Namibian cricket and cited the National Under-19 Cricket Eleven’s qualification for next year’s ICC Youth Cricket World Cup finals as a step in the right direction.