Out of sheer respect for the sacred word, “HONESTY”, let yours truly humble himself by doffing my Korrie for the gutsy performance displayed by the Namibian Under-19 Cricket Eleven at the just-ended International Cricket Council (ICC) Youth World Cup in Bangladesh.
Despite a small pool of cricketers to choose a formidable team from, the relatively young and inexperienced Namibians certainly acquitted themselves rather well under trying circumstances.
Even though the boys failed to reach the semi-finals of that august event, the fired-up youngsters brought joy and happiness to the faces of the permanently success-starved (sports-wise) inhabitants of our beloved land of the brave.
Fair enough, the team’s near faultless display at the global showpiece was hailed as another milestone in domestic cricket, but alas, we should not be blinded by loyalty at the expense of recognising pertinent shortcomings and reality.
Without beating about the bush, let us take a holistic look at the bigger picture. The bottom line is that the composition of the squad is not a true reflection of the country’s demographic composition, so to speak.
The team’s commendable performance at the global showpiece should be in no ways be allowed to soften or suffocate the fight for the much despised, but inevitable, dialogue on transformation, which is long overdue.
A humble request to my learned colleagues at Cricket Namibia: introduce hard and fast rules that will primarily and solely deal with the burning issue of transformation without further delay. Set a barometer and appoint a competent committee that will monitor and oversee the successful implementation of these programmes. Period!
Is it perhaps not time now to vigorously start interrogating the discrepancies that have been the order of the day when it comes to team selection, where young athletes are selected on the basis of their parents’ deep pockets, at the expense of highly gifted athletes from poor households?
I rest my case.