Bank Windhoek announced a N$90 000 sponsorship towards the new Bank Windhoek Ladies Cricket League which is scheduled to run from mid-September until November 2010.
Marlize Horn, the Senior Manager Marketing and Corporate Communications at Bank Windhoek said that the aim was to increase women’s participation in all aspects of the game of cricket.
“The Bank Windhoek sponsorship aims to give a hand to Cricket Namibia in its pursuit to develop women’s cricket. This will be to increase female participation in all areas and levels of the game and also to encourage women to take up coaching, umpiring and scoring courses,” Horn said.
“Bank Windhoek and Cricket Namibia would also like to see a growth in the numbers of spectators to women’s cricket games,” Horn continued.
“Although there is a common belief that cricket is a male sport, over the years more girls have begun to participate in the sport or have indicated some interest in it. Cricket Namibia has confirmed that there has been an increase in interest as well as an awareness and accessibility to the game.”
The President of Cricket Namibia, Francois Erasmus, welcomed the decision by Bank Windhoek to invest in ladies cricket.
“We have been struggling to get ladies cricket off the ground for a few years mainly due to the financial issue. Now with Bank Windhoek on board, we are sure to hold a successful league,” Erasmus said.
“The inclusion of women in the sport in Namibia will be a tool for empowering them and making the playing field more even,” Erasmus added.
“Our intention is get a national team and make sure that they are competitive as soon as possible. So we are hoping that we will be able to send a team to the World Cup Qualifiers in Kenya in December this year.”
“We will not be expecting to be winning matches immediately, we just want to make sure that we are used to competing internationally,” Erasmus.
So far six teams have registered to compete in the inaugural season of the Ladies Cricket League. Moria Primary School, Tsumeb Gymnasium, Windhoek Afrikaans Private School, Windhoek Gymnasium Private School, Windhoek High School and Pro-Ed Akademie.
“Most of the teams that will be competing in the league are school teams. This means that our players are young and that is good because we will be developing them for the future and I am sure we will have a strong national squad in a few years time.” Erasmus concluded.