Cricket

Bermuda have announced their 14-man squad for their cricket tour to South Africa and Namibia, which takes place from March 23 to April 12.

The tour includes a week-long High Performance training camp at the University of Pretoria prior to the team's departure for Namibia, where they will play a four-day Intercontinental Shield game against the hosts from April 2 to 5. Then follow two limited-overs games, on April 7 and 8, and a Twenty20 match on April 10 before the team return home.

Namibia’s cricketers suffered an 83-run defeat to Kwazulu Natal Inland in their one-day limited overs match at the Wanderers field on Sunday.

The previous day Namibia staged a great comeback to draw their three-day SAA Challenge match against the same opponents, but on Sunday they were outplayed from the start.

KZN Inland batted first and posted a competitive total of 208 runs from their 40 overs. Namibia’s run chase got off to a poor start as they lost wickets at regular intervals, and they were eventually all out for 125 off only 32 overs.

Namibia staged a great comeback to nearly beat Kwazulu Natal Inland at the Wanderers field on Saturday, but the visitors managed to hold out for a draw.

With a 163-run deficit on the first innings, Namibia seemed to be heading for defeat, but their batsmen made a fine comeback, scoring 290 in their second innings and then had the visitors in deep trouble at 102/8 when the match was called off.

Namibia’s first innings got off to a poor start as Raymond van Schoor was out for a duck, while Sarel Burger (5) and Louis Burger (2) soon followed.

Namibia were in a spot of trouble at stumps on the first day of their SAA Challenge match against Kwazulu Natal Inland at the Wanderers ground, after the visitors already surpassed their total with six wickets in hand. Namibia were skittled out for 112 runs and at stumps KZN Inland had reached 155/4.

Namibia’s innings got off to a poor start as Raymond van Schoor was out for a duck, while Sarel Burger (5) and Louis Burger (2) soon followed.

Namibia’s cricket development programme took the top prize of Best Overall Cricket Development Programme at the ICC Development Programme Annual Awards 2009 which were announced on Monday.

It was the second time that Namibia had won the ICC Global Development Programme of the Year award following their first success in 2004.

Their latest award follows their continental success in February when they won the ICC African Development Programme of the Year award. It was the fifth time that they had won the continental development award.

Namibia crashed to a 99-run defeat in their limited overs SAA Challenge match in Cape Town on Sunday.

Namibia won the toss and sent WP in to bat – a decision which immediately paid dividends. Norbert Manyande ran out Alistair Gray for 1, while Louis Klazinga dismissed Zahid Allie for a duck as WP crashed to 2/1.

When Craig Williams dismissed Martin Walters for 1, Namibia were firmly in command with the hosts struggling at 17/3.

WP were however let off the hook as Yasseen Vallie (43) and Romano Ramoo (41) came to Province’s rescue with a 70-run partnership.

Namibia gave a brilliant all round performance to take a commanding lead after the first day of their three-day SAA Challenge match against Western Province in Cape Town on Thursday.

With Louis Klazinga and Craig Williams in great form with the ball, Namibia skittled WP out for 70 runs in their first innings. Namibia’s batsmen then came to the party with some big contributions and at stumps Namibia had reached 248/4 for a lead of 178 runs with six first innings wickets still remaining.

Appropriately, the two teams that played in the only abandoned match of the tournament met in a third-place play-off. Desert Vipers from Namibia, who had begun the series quite weakly, showed how much they had learned and improved with a convincing victory over Matabeleland Tuskers by 31 runs.

Vipers decided to bat, as they had in the previous match. Tuskers opened their bowling with the occasional medium-pacers of Dion Ebrahim, as they had done once before in the tournament, presumably to take the pace off the ball; he conceded five singles but no boundaries, and was not used again.

Namibia’s Desert Vipers beat the Mid West Rhinos by 8 runs on Friday to qualify for the third place play-off in the Zimbabwean 20/20 Series, where they will meet the Matabeleland Tuskers on Saturday.

A dashing finish to the Vipers' innings took them to 141 for 7 and gave Rhinos a target to chase. They looked likely to achieve it at the halfway stage of their innings, but then began a fatal middle-order slide, allowing Vipers to take control of the match.

February is often a very wet month in Zimbabwe, and this tournament had been blessed with six days of dry weather, but lightning and rain during the match between Matabeleland Tuskers and Desert Vipers at Harare Sports Club scheduled on the one half-day meant it became the first washed-out game. Desert Vipers reached 147 for 4 thanks to a steady 44 from Raymond van Schoor and a rather more violent unbeaten 48 from Dwaine Pretorius, and Tuskers had reached 23 for 1 in the fifth over when the match was abandoned.