Cricket

Cricket Namibia has announced a team that will represent the country when they host the ICC Africa Under 19 Cricket World Cup Qualifier from 29 August to 5 September in Windhoek.

Eight countries will participate in the tournament where the top two nations will qualify to play for the ICC Under 19 Cricket World Cup Qualifier in 2011.

Cricket Namibia Chief Executive Officer, Laurie Pieters, was very excited about the impact of hosting of the qualifiers would have on cricket development in the country.

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.

DF Vogelhubert won the Player of the Year award at the Centre for Cricket Development’s CCD Cricket Awards on Friday night.

The burly 24-year-old off spinner was the club’s leading wicket taker during the 2009/10 MTC Premier League while he was also an explosive lower order batsman.

He played a major role in taking the club to the Premier League final for the first time in their history where they lost to Wanderers by 100 runs. On the way to the final CCD beat Wanderers twice during their league campaign, with Vogelhubert making valuable contributions with his batting.

Pace bowler Louis Klazinga was named Namibia’s Cricket Player of the Year at Cricket Namibia’s annual awards ceremony on Saturday evening. Klazinga, who beat the other finalists, all rounder Craig Williams and batsman Raymond van Schoor to the award, had a great season with the ball.

He was one of the top bowlers in the Cricket South Africa provincial competition, finishing as the third highest wicket taker in the three day competition with 48 wickets, and the fifth highest wicket taker in the one day competition with 20 wickets.

Namibia comfortably saw off Bermuda in their one-day match, winning by 65 runs at Windhoek although a defiant 100 from 75 balls by Irving Romaine narrowed the margin after the visitors slumped to 86 for 8.

Namibia's 268 for 6 was anchored by Sarel Burger's 91 and boosted by Gerrie Snyman's 56.

Raymond van Schoor and Ewald Steenkamp's 374-run opening partnership helped Namibia complete a crushing innings victory over Bermuda in the Intercontinental Shield match in Windhoek on Sunday. Namibia take the full 20 points on offer and move second in the table, nine points behind Uganda after winning a match they dominated from the off.

North West comfortably beat Namibia by eight wickets in their one-day CSA Challenge match in Potchefstroom on Sunday. Namibia won the toss and elected to bat and scored a competitive 215 for 6 wickets off their 40 overs.

North West however made short shrift of this as Christiaan Jonker scored a century and former Proteas all rounder Andrew Hall 58 to steer them to victory with 10 overs to spare.

Namibia got off to a solid start as all their top order batsmen got amongst the runs.

Namibia crashed to a 76-run defeat in their three-day CSA Challenge match against North West in Potchefstroom on Saturday. It was a disappointing end to a match that Namibia should have won, but they failed to press home their advantage as the home side recovered for a come-from-behind victory.

Namibia had North West in deep trouble early in their first innings when Louis Klazinga took three wickets in seven balls as North West crashed to 20/4 and then 31/5.

Namibia once again let slip a promising start to North West’s second innings in Potchefstroom, as a huge seventh wicket partnership between Brett Pelser and Chris Morris put the home side firmly in charge.

When the two batsmen got together North West were in deep trouble at 96/6 in their second innings, but they took complete control of the match to add a record 249 runs for the seventh wicket.

Morris was eventually out, bowled by Louis Burger for 145, which came off 154 balls and included 17 fours and three sixes.

Namibia let North West off the hook on the opening day of their CSA Challenge match in Potchefstroom on Thursday and at stumps the honours were quite even. After being in deep trouble at 5/31 and then 7/97, North West staged a fine comeback before they were all out for 194. At stumps Namibia had reached 157/5 – still 37 runs behind with five first innings wickets in hand.

Namibia won the toss and elected to field – a decision which soon reaped dividends as Christie Viljoen dismissed Johan Mostert for 5 with the total on 9.