Women cricket prepares for friendlies

By Michael Uugwanga

CRICKET Namibia has said that it has arranged several warm-up matches for the women senior cricket side as part of preparations to the International Cricket Council (ICC) Cricket World Cup scheduled to be held in New Zealand early 2022. 

The event was originally scheduled for February to March 2021 but was postponed amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the ICC stated.

The women team has not been receiving the same support as that of their male counterparts due to lack of funds and participation by the women due to the stigma attached to the sport as many locals still view cricket as a men’s sport; however Cricket Namibia is hard at work in making sure that the women sport becomes as a popular as that of men.

In order for Namibia to be competitive in the qualifiers to the World Cup, the players will need to be in good condition which comes with proper preparation through friendly matches since the women’s team lost significant training and playing time due to financial constraints and the Covid-19 pandemic that disrupted sporting events. 

Speaking to Confidente Sports Desk, Cricket Namibia marketing manager Natalia Nauyoma said although the senior women’s team has no plans to tour outside the country this year, the team has already lined up friendly matches.

“Our World Cup qualifiers are next year November and we have already arranged several teams to tour Namibia in 2021 as part of the preparations to the World Cup. We will have some warm-up matches against the likes of Zimbabwe, Botswana and Uganda to prepare well for the World Cup qualifiers,” she said.

Nauyoma also said that Cricket Namibia is hoping to start a women’s club league this month in order to create awareness about the sport amongst women across the country.

“We are in the process to set up a women’s club league structure that will hopefully start mid-October. We are also planning to have to women clubs from the coast and two from central as this will help the women’s department in the sense that we can travel to all regions in the country and that we now can play inter-squad matches,” said Nauyoma.