Cricket

Namibia beat Tanzania by five wickets on Wednesday to remain the only team that is unbeaten after four matches in the ICC Africa Under 19 World Cup qualifiers that are currently taking place in Windhoek.

Tanzania won the toss and elected to bat first and managed to put up a total of 146 all out. Zhivago Groenewald of Namibia got 3/22 in nine overs. Namibia followed and managed to get to 147/5 after 42 overs. Gerhard Lotter got 31 runs out of 43 runs for Namibia.

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.

Gerhard Lotter helped Namibia continue in their winning ways when they beat Sierra Leone on day three of the ICC Africa U19 World Cup qualifiers. He had an impressive 150 runs that brought Namibia to 263 all out after 49.4 overs.

This meant that they beat Sierra Leone by 188 runs after the West Africans were bowled out for 71 runs. Christopher Coombe did the most damage for the Namibians after he collected 4 wickets for 26 runs in 9 overs. Wian van Vuuren had 3/17 after 10 overs.

The Ugandan U19 team, who ended winners of the 2009 ICC Africa U19 CWCQ, continued their winning ways on Monday. For the second day in a row, the Ugandan bowling attack bowled their opposition out for under a hundred. Prize bowler for Uganda was Faruk Ochimi with four Tanzanian wickets for 20 runs. The Tanzania attack hardly troubled the Ugandans, who knocked the target off in 16 overs.

In the opening match of the ICC Africa Cricket World Cup qiualifiers in Windhoek, Namibia, Uganda comprehensively thrashed newly promoted Nigeria.

Nigeria were bowled out for a disappointing 67, with Uganda’s destroyer in chief being Faruk Ochimi who took 4 for 25 in 6 overs.

Uganda didn’t have it all their own way, losing wickets along the way, but they managed to pass their target in the 16th over and eventually beat Nigeria by 3 wickets.

Windhoek Gymnasium A and Pro-Ed Akademie won the Under 13 and Under 11 categories at the Coastal Spur Cricket Festival that was held in Walvis Bay from August 23 to 27.

It was the 12th consecutive year that the junior cricket festival had been held and it once again saw a good turnout with young cricketers from Walvis Bay, Swakopmund, Windhoek and Otjiwarongo participating.

Namibia will face Botswana in their first match of the ICC Africa Under 19 Cricket World Cup Qualifiers that will be held in Windhoek from Sunday 29 August to 5 September.

Eight countries will participate in the qualifiers with the top two nations qualifying to play in the ICC Under 19 Cricket World Cup Qualifier in 2011.

The coach of the Namibian team, Johan Rudolph, said that the team was ready for the tournament.

“We have been preparing since May, the boys are ready. We are at a point where we just want to play,” Rudolph said.

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.