Cricket Namibia (CN) has contracted nine full time professional players from the first of June in its bid to improve the performances of the national team. Kallie Engelbrecht, an executive committee member of CN said that they had decided that ‘something drastic’ had to be done to revive the fortunes of the national team following a ‘disappointing’ 2009/10 season and would also cast their net wider to try and lure Namibian born players in other countries.
“From June 1 we have contracted nine professional cricket players. They will just play cricket - that’s their job, but we decided that something drastic needs to be done to lift the standard,” he said.
“We also took our cues from other countries, because if you look at a country like Scotland for instance, their team includes about four Afrikaners and several Indian players, so we have decided to look further abroad for Namibian born players. Players like David Wiese and Faf du Plessis are doing very well in South Africa, and although we cannot afford to contract them for a whole season, we must see if we can use them in the ICC competition,” he said.
Engelbrecht said that the national team had a disappointing season in the South African SAA competition, finishing ninth in the three-day game and 13th in the one-day competition.
“Most of our players have full time jobs so many were not available throughout the season and some only played two matches for the whole season. But this also opened opportunities for some youngsters to come through and some played very well,” he said.
Engelbrecht said that cricket had become big business in Namibia with an annual budget of about N$9 million.
“Our main sponsor MTC contributes N$2,5 million, while the ICC also contributes funds, although this is mostly intended for development, so we cant contract players with those funds. But we also have a lot of expenses and the SAA competition alone amounted to about N$2,7 million last season,” he said.
Engelbrecht said that CN had completed four new pitches for the new season while it now employed 15 permanent staff members, including CEO Laurie Pieters, Development Manager Marsia Reed and several development officers.
He called on Namibia’s young cricketers to take the game seriously and to work extra hard to excel in the sport.
“If you work hard you can make the national team where you can earn a living as a cricketer. If Namibia qualifies for the next World Cup, we will automatically receive a grant of US$1 milllion from the ICC,” he added.