Cricket Namibia on Monday announced a 14-man national u19 squad that will represent Namibia at the African World Cup qualifying tournament in Tanzania from 21 to 31 July.
Namibia will compete against five other countries, with only the winning nation qualifying for the 2024 Junior Cricket World Cup in Sri Lanka.
The other competing nations are the hosts Tanzania, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Kenya and Uganda.
The winning African nation will join 11 full member nations at the 2024 u19 world cup.
The Namibian squad was selected after a period of intense training, monitoring and tracking by the selectors.
It will be captained by allrounder Alex Volschenk, who is currently studying at Waterkloof High School in Pretoria, South Africa, and includes several players who previously represented Namibia at the u19 continental qualifier, including Volschenk; top-order batters Ryan Moffett and Gerhard Janse van Rensburg, and wicketkeeper-batter JW Visagie.
Most of the squad members have also regularly featured for Namibia’s top clubs in the premier league.
De Villiers and PD Blignaut featured for the Premier League champions Wanderers; Janse van Rensburg, Visagie, Van Vuuren and Faf du Plessis represened the runners-up Windhoek High School Old Boys; Franko Bergh represented Trustco United; Ryan Moffet represented CCD Tigers; and Junior Kariata represented the Welwitschias.
Besides them, Hanro Badenhorst is from Swakopmund, Woutie Niehaus is from Tsumeb, Adriaan Louw studies at Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch, and Jack Brussel is at the Durham Cricket Academy in England.
Cricket Namibia’s newly-appointed high performance manager and u19 coach, Oscar Nauhaus expressed satisfaction with the selected squad.
“The squad boasts good experience, with some members having participated at the previous u19 World Cup qualifier. The team has a variety of skill sets available to call on, which should provide us the opportunity to be adaptable and flexible,” he said.
The CEO of Cricket Namibia, Johan Muller, said they believe the squad can qualify for the world cup.
“We are very proud of the 14 selected players. The selection process started in August last year and included various tournaments, tours, trial weekends, and camps. Part of Cricket Namibia’s vision is to be globally competitive, which has been achieved by our national men’s and women’s teams in recent months. Our focus has now also moved down to our U19 men’s and women’s teams. They will have our full support behind them in the qualifier. We believe we have the right talent to deliver during the event and then measure ourselves against the best of the world at the world cup.”
The Namibian u19 squad is as follows:
Alexander Volschenk (captain); Gerhard Janse van Rensburg (vice captain); Adriaan Louw; Faf du Plessis; Franko Bergh; Hanro Badenhorst; Hansie de Villiers; Jack Brussel; Junior Kariata; JW Visagie; Peter Daniel Blignaut; Ryan Moffet; Woutie Niehaus and Zacheo Janse van Vuuren.
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