Low turn-out ‘just not cricket’

NAMIBIA Cricket Board (NCB) chairman, Francois Erasmus said he was disappointed with the turn-out of the public to the historic One Day International matches between Namibia and New Zealand at the weekend.

Although Namibia lost both matches, the first by 29 runs on Saturday and the second by 148 runs, the crowd attendance in Erasmus view could have made a difference. “The support from the public was very disappointing, while we did also not see much of the media compared to previous matches,” he said.There were an average of less than 1 500 spectators on both days.He said it cost a lot of money to bring in top international sides such as New Zealand and the Namibian team deserves all the support it could get from the public.”Both days were disappointing considering all the hard-work that went in to make the two days a success.But apart from that, we just have to bite the bullet and look ahead,” he said.Namibia Mobile Telecommunications (MTC) injected a whopping N$375 000 to make the two matches possible.Erasmus, who served as the team manager of the class of 2003 players who competed at the World Cup in South Africa, was made chairman of the NCB after the departure of Ian Stevenson last year.He said Namibia played well on Saturday, but their performance on Sunday was out of sorts.”We still had five overs left on the first day and I think we could have made it through if we had reached the allotted 50 over mark, but we were unfortunate in that respect,” he said.Erasmus said he was also disappointed with the fielding of the Namibian players on both days, saying that a lot needs to be done on that front.”Our batsmen did well overall, but the fielding was not satisfactory at all.We need to work on it if we want to compete on that level,” he said.He said New Zealand was more superior in many respects and they deserved to win on the two days.For the two days, Jan Berrie Burger was drafted in as captain for the Namibians after Deon Kotze decided to stand down immediately after the countryŽs failure to qualify for the 2006 World Cup in the West Indies last month.In SundayŽs match, New Zealand batted first and all their top order batsmen got amongst the runs.Craig Cumming scored 27 before being caught by Dawid Botha off ST Ackerman, while James Marshall went LBW to Louis Burger for 26.Lou Vincent was caught by Ian van Zyl off Louis Burger, while Scott Styris was stumped by Morne Karg off JB Burger’s bowling for 25.New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming kept the scoreboard ticking along with a quick 58 off 64 balls (3×4, 1×6), before being caught by Gerrie Snyman off JB Burger’s bowling.At 171/5 the match was still evenly balanced, but when Brendon McCullum joined Nathan Astle, the match swung New Zealand’s way.They started playing the Namibian attack to all corners of the Wanderers ground, although McCullum had a lucky escape when he was dropped on 13.With boundaries coming quick and fast they upped the tempo, scoring 133 runs off the last ten overs as New Zealand reached 326 for 5 off their 50 overs.McCullum was eventually not out on 84 off 48 balls (7×4, 3×6), while Astle was not out on 73 off 52 balls (6×4, 2×6).Namibia’s wicket takers were Louis Burger (2/76 off 10 overs), ST Ackerman (1/27 off 5) and JB Burger (2/21 off 3).Namibia were soon in trouble when JB Burger was clean bowled by Shane Bond with the third ball of the innings and after ST Ackerman (0) and Louis Burger (6) also went cheaply, Namibia were struggling at 3/22.Dawid Botha and Morne Karg however steadied the innings with a 52-run partnership, but then Namibia lost three wickets within two runs, to effectively end the contest.Karg was caught by Stephen Fleming off Chris Martin for 29, Botha was caught by McCullum off Scott Styris for 32 and Gerrie Snyman was caught by McCullum off Martin for a duck, to leave Namibia reeling at 76/6.Deon Kotze and Stephan Swanepoel gave Namibia a flicker of hope with a 62-run partnership for the seventh wicket, but when they went in quick succession, the run chase was over.Kotze scored 36 off 38 balls before being caught by McCullum off Daniel Vettori, while Swanepoel scored 28 off 31 balls before being clean bowled by Vettori.Nicholaas Scholtz scored 15 before being stumped by McCullum off Paul Wiseman, while Neil Rossouw was caught Styris, bowled Vettori for 1.Ian van Zyl was not out on 15 as Namibia were all out for 178 runs.New Zealand’s wicket takers were Shane Bond (2/16 off 5 overs), Kyle Mills (1/39 off 8), Chris Martin (2/26 off 5), Scott Styris (1/24 off 7), Paul Wiseman (1/41 off 5) and Daniel Vettori (3/24 off 8).McCullum won the Man of the Match award.- Additional Reporting by Namibia Sport”The support from the public was very disappointing, while we did also not see much of the media compared to previous matches,” he said.There were an average of less than 1 500 spectators on both days.He said it cost a lot of money to bring in top international sides such as New Zealand and the Namibian team deserves all the support it could get from the public.”Both days were disappointing considering all the hard-work that went in to make the two days a success.But apart from that, we just have to bite the bullet and look ahead,” he said.Namibia Mobile Telecommunications (MTC) injected a whopping N$375 000 to make the two matches possible.Erasmus, who served as the team manager of the class of 2003 players who competed at the World Cup in South Africa, was made chairman of the NCB after the departure of Ian Stevenson last year.He said Namibia played well on Saturday, but their performance on Sunday was out of sorts.”We still had five overs left on the first day and I think we could have made it through if we had reached the allotted 50 over mark, but we were unfortunate in that respect,” he said.Erasmus said he was also disappointed with the fielding of the Namibian players on both days, saying that a lot needs to be done on that front.”Our batsmen did well overall, but the fielding was not satisfactory at all.We need to work on it if we want to compete on that level,” he said.He said New Zealand was more superior in many respects and they deserved to win on the two days.For the two days, Jan Berrie Burger was drafted in as captain for the Namibians after Deon Kotze decided to stand down immediately after the countryŽs failure to qualify for the 2006 World Cup in the West Indies last month.In SundayŽs match, New Zealand batted first and all their top order batsmen got amongst the runs.Craig Cumming scored 27 before being caught by Dawid Botha off ST Ackerman, while James Marshall went LBW to Louis Burger for 26.Lou Vincent was caught by Ian van Zyl off Louis Burger, while Scott Styris was stumped by Morne Karg off JB Burger’s bowling for 25.New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming kept the scoreboard ticking along with a quick 58 off 64 balls (3×4, 1×6), before being caught by Gerrie Snyman off JB Burger’s bowling.At 171/5 the match was still evenly balanced, but when Brendon McCullum joined Nathan Astle, the match swung New Zealand’s way.They started playing the Namibian attack to all corners of the Wanderers ground, although McCullum had a lucky escape when he was dropped on 13.With boundaries coming quick and fast they upped the tempo, scoring 133 runs off the last ten overs as New Zealand reached 326 for 5 off their 50 overs.McCullum was eventually not out on 84 off 48 balls (7×4, 3×6), while Astle was not out on 73 off 52 balls (6×4, 2×6).Namibia’s wicket takers were Louis Burger (2/76 off 10 overs), ST Ackerman (1/27 off 5) and JB Burger (2/21 off 3).Namibia were soon in trouble when JB Burger was clean bowled by Shane Bond with the third ball of the innings and after ST Ackerman (0) and Louis Burger (6) also went cheaply, Namibia were struggling at 3/22.Dawid Botha and Morne Karg however steadied the innings with a 52-run partnership, but then Namibia lost three wickets within two runs, to effectively end the contest.Karg was caught by Stephen Fleming off Chris Martin for 29, Botha was caught by McCullum off Scott Styris for 32 and Gerrie Snyman was caught by McCullum off Martin f
or a duck, to leave Namibia reeling at 76/6.Deon Kotze and Stephan Swanepoel gave Namibia a flicker of hope with a 62-run partnership for the seventh wicket, but when they went in quick succession, the run chase was over.Kotze scored 36 off 38 balls before being caught by McCullum off Daniel Vettori, while Swanepoel scored 28 off 31 balls before being clean bowled by Vettori.Nicholaas Scholtz scored 15 before being stumped by McCullum off Paul Wiseman, while Neil Rossouw was caught Styris, bowled Vettori for 1.Ian van Zyl was not out on 15 as Namibia were all out for 178 runs.New Zealand’s wicket takers were Shane Bond (2/16 off 5 overs), Kyle Mills (1/39 off 8), Chris Martin (2/26 off 5), Scott Styris (1/24 off 7), Paul Wiseman (1/41 off 5) and Daniel Vettori (3/24 off 8).McCullum won the Man of the Match award.- Additional Reporting by Namibia Sport