Sports
Namibia’s South African connection poses some challenge for Sri Lanka
Rex Clementine in Geelong
Having cruised past world’s number one ranked and number two ranked teams on their way to win the Asia Cup, a team like Namibia should be of little concern for Sri Lanka. But the former champions would have spent considerable time discussing Namibia due to the fact that this is a side that’s rich with South African talents.South Africa is a nation with abundance of cricketing talents and due to their extreme quota policy, we have seen some of the finest players in the game shifting to places like England, Australia and New Zealand and in recent years to not so greener pastures like Namibia.
Namibia with a population of 2.5 million people shares borders with South Africa, from whom they gained independence in 1990 with apartheid about to collapse.David Wiese with a reputation of being one of the cleanest strikers of the ball provides the biggest challenge to opposition teams and the Sri Lankans would have done their home work against him. They have got decent momentum as well ahead of the World Cup having beaten Zimbabwe in a series and earlier this week overcame a strong Ireland side in a warm-up game.
Drawn up alongside Netherlands and UAE, the Sri Lankans would think that their biggest challenge comes from Namibia in the qualifying round.Dasun Shanaka’s side have most bases covered and they are likely to go with extra pace during the qualifying round. When they had to qualify in the last tournament, that’s a formula that stood in good stead for them so both Dushmantha Chameera and Lahiru Kumara are certainties to play, with both touching 140kmph.
That kind of pace is rarely associated by associate nations although several Namibia players have received exposure having played in different leagues around the world. It remains to be seen whether Sri Lanka will persist with Charith Asalanka. The Richmondite was Sri Lanak’s star performer in the last World Cup but fell out of favour during the Asia Cup. His place was taken by Dhananjaya de Silva, who has done reasonably well. Sri Lanka will be based in Geelong for the qualifying round where all three of their games take place.
Namibia: Gerhard Erasmus (c), JJ Smit, Divan la Cock, Stephan Baard, Nicol Loftie Eaton, Jan Frylinck, David Wiese, Ruben Trumpelmann, Zane Green, Bernard Scholtz, Tangeni Lungameni, Michael van
Umpires: Joe Wilson (WI) and Rod Tucker (AUS).
Third Umpire: Paul Reiffel (AUS)
Match Referee: Andy Pycroft (ZIM)