Namibia to host Women’s World Cup Qualifier

NAMIBIA will host the Women’s Africa T20 World Cup Qualifiers in Windhoek in September this year.

The president of Cricket Namibia Richard Frankle announced the news at Cricket Namibia’s annual prizegiving function in Windhoek on Saturday night.

“Women’s cricket continues to develop in leaps and bounds and I am extremely pleased to announce that Namibia has been chosen by the international Cricket Council to host the Women’s Africa T20 Qualifiers in Windhoek in September,” he said.

“On the field, both the women and the young girls have performed admirably and I urge you to keep up the good work,” he added.

Namibia’s senior and junior national women’s teams have been quite active over the past year during which they recorded some good results.

In February the senior team won three matches against a Western Province Development team and two county sides from England, Hampshire and Warwickshire; while they also won two out of four matches on a tour to Gauteng.

They beat Gauteng B and Northerns, but lost to Gauteng A and their second match against Northerns.

Namibia’s u19 side won an African eight-nation tournament, beating Botswana in the final, while Namibia’s u16 girls team won all their matches against South African provincial teams at the Easterns Cricket Festival in December last year.

The Women’s World T20 tournament takes place in the West Indies in November next year where the West Indies will defend the title that they won for the first time in India last year after beating Australia by eight wickets in the final.

At this stage it’s not certain how many teams will compete or go through from the continental qualifiers, but in the past eight countries received automatic entry while they were joined by two countries from qualifying tournaments.

Continental qualifying tournaments for next year’s event have already started, while a final qualifying tournament will be held later this year.

Five countries, namely Namibia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania will compete in the Africa T20 Qualifier in Windhoek with the winning country and possibly the second placed country as well, going through to the final qualifying competition.

The CEO of Cricket Namibia Dr Donovan Zealand said he wasn’t sure how many countries will go through to the final qualifying tournament.

“We haven’t heard yet how many will qualify from the African T20 tournament but usually its the top two countries. It will be a tough tournament and Zimbabwe and Kenya will start among the favourites,” he said.

Dr Zealand added that they would use an interim coach in the meantime after the national women’s coach Gareth Cloete resigned a week ago.

“We have put coaching structures in place so we’ll use an interim coach in the mean time. The position will only be advertised after the African qualifying tournament,” he said.

Frankle, meanwhile, also congratulated CN board member Hester Kahn who was selected to the board of the Africa Cricket Association at their recent annual general meeting in Johannesburg.

Regarding recent criticism in the media, Frankle said that Cricket Namibia would not be derailed from its efforts to develop the game throughout Namibia.

“I would like to give a clear message to those few individuals who choose to vent their frustrations anonymously in the media. Cricket Namibia stands united in their quest to develop cricket to the highest possible standard, to give equal opportunity to all Namibians to play the game of cricket, to continue to develop the game at grassroots level and to take cricket to all the regions of this country,” he said.

“We will not be derailed in our efforts and will continue to implement changes in the best interest of cricket. Cricket Namibia is intent on ensuring that cricket becomes the best brand in Namibia that it can be,” he added.