Cricket Namibia’s have officially announced that they have withdrawn themselves from participation in Cricket South Africa (CSA) Sunfoil 3-day series and Provincial One-Day Cup for 2018/19 owing to increasing travel costs and other logistical issues due to geographical positioning of the countries in the African region.
Cricket Namibia official statement
Namibia reached the final of the 3-day tournament for the first time in the 2017 edition of the tournament; however, they went onto finish as the runners-up as they lost the final against a strong Kwazulu-Natal by an innings and 25 runs.
Craig Williams was the highest run-scorer for Namibia in the 3-day competition with 687 runs from 8 matches at an average of more than 50+. Stephen Baard (564 runs from 9 matches) and Jan Frylinck (434 runs from 9 matches) also contributed heavily with the bat during the tournament.
Bernard Scholtz (35 wickets from 9 matches), JJ Smit (25 wickets from 8 matches) and Craig Williams (13 wickets from 8 matches) were the top wicket-takers for Namibia in the tournament.
Cricket Namibia have confirmed that their request has been accepted by Cricket South Africa.
These kind of situations due to cost’s issues should be looked into by the concerned regional associations of ICC and Africa Cricket Association as such matters hamper the growth/development of players in the longer term. Last month, CSA had to bail out Cricket Kenya as well due to lack of funds, which could have impacted Kenya’s participation in 2018 Africa T20 Cup.
