Let the Africa Indoor Cup begin! 

Anticipation is rising for the Indoor Hockey Africa Cup which gets underway at the MTC Dome Namibia at Swakopmund today. 

The tournament serves as a qualifier for next year’s Indoor World Cup in Poreč, Croatia and Namibia’s chances are very good, considering the draw as well as their track record.

Only four southern African teams have entered the tournament – South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and the hosts Namibia – and they will be battling it out for the top two places in the men and women’s competitions, which will gain promotion to the world cup. 

Over the past decade Namibia’s women have improved considerably on the continental stage and in fact won the previous two Africa Cups after beating SA in both finals to qualify for the 2018 and 2023 Indoor World Cups in Berlin and Pretoria, respectively.

South Africa, however, still have the higher world ranking at sixth, while Namibia are ranked 11th, but Namibia served notice with some great performances last year. 

At the Sultan Nazrin Shah Indoor Hockey Cup in Malaysia in November, South Africa’s women won the tournament after also beating Namibia 2-1 in a close group match.

A month later at the Nkosi Cup in Cape Town, however, Namibia gained revenge to win the cup in style with their young striker Kiana Cormack in great form.

SA won both their group matches 3-1 and 3-2, but Namibia qualified for the final after beating Ireland twice (5-3 and 2-1) and kept their best form for last when they beat SA 4-2 in the final. 

Cormack was the star of the show, scoring a hattrick in the final, and winning the player of the tournament, as well as top goalscorer award with 12 goals in total.

Namibian keeper Petro Stoffberg was also in great form, winning the keeper of the tournament award, and with other experienced players in the squad, like captain Gillian Hermanus, Sunelle Ludwig, Jivanka Kruger and Jerrica Bartlett they will be confident of their chances.

Namibia’s men, meanwhile, have improved considerably in recent years. In 2022 they qualified for the 2023 Indoor World Cup in Pretoria, where they finished eighth out of 12 nations, after beating Kazakhstan 6-2, drawing 4-4 against New Zealand, and then losing 3-2 in the seventh place playoff match against the United States. 

They didn’t meet South Africa there, but they did meet at the Shah Cup last November when Namibia stunned their southern African neighbours with a 3-2 penalty victory in the final after a full time score of 2-2. 

South Africa, however, took revenge in stunning style at the Nkosi Cup the next month, by winning the final 10-2. 

SA’s men are currently ranked seventh in the world, while Namibia is 13th.

Zimbabwe and Botswana are ranked quite a bit lower with Botswana’s men 27th and Zimbabwe’s 30th, while Botswana’s women are ranked 34th and Zimbabwe’s 36th.

The president of the Namibia Hockey Union, Reagon Graig said he was very excited and fancied their chances.

“We are getting ready for a great tournament and some great support from our Namibian fans at the Dome. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. We also got some late sponsors which has helped our team a lot,” he said. 

“We just need second place, but I always want the guys to respect the opposition and I want to go into the World Cup as African champions and not as the second placed qualifier. We’ve got a very good record in Africa and I think we stand a great chance to qualify for the world cup,” he added. 

South African have sent their strongest team, including the mercurial Cassiem brothers, Mustapha and Dayaan, who were not present at the Shah Cup, but Graig said they want to beat the best. 

“They are phenomenal players, but we always want to play against the best and we want to win it fair and square. We’ve played them before, we know what to expect and we are not afraid of them.” 

Namibia, though, have some stars of their own in the likes of Liam Hermanus, Cody van der Merwe, Ernest Jacobs, the Hansen brothers, Dakota and Fagan and the silky-skilled Brynn Cleak and their performances are being eagerly awaited.