Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus has expressed his displeasure at his team not getting a night training slot ahead of the match against India in Delhi. This match is to be played on Thursday (12 February).
Namibia’s first game of the tournament was played against the Netherlands at 11am IST in Delhi earlier this week. On Wednesday (February 11), he opted to practice but he had to do it during the 2-5 pm slot. As a result, Namibia’s players will not receive any training playing under lights ahead of the night match against India.
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Unlike Namibia, India’s first match of the tournament was a night match against the United States in Mumbai. He also trained in the 6-9 pm slot on 10 and 11 February. Interestingly, on Wednesday, Canada also trained at the same time with India. Canada will face UAE in the match on February 13 at 3 pm.
Gerhard Erasmus unhappy:
Namibian players did not shy away from expressing their displeasure when they did not get a chance to train in the light. He said that India trained at night for two days and also said that Canada also trained in the light. At the same time, Gerhard Erasmus vowed to fight on the field.
“Yes, we are not given night training [session] Before this game, I didn’t know why. I think in India there is two night training [sessions] And I look out there will be night training now in Canada, so do what you want, but we’ll just go ahead and do our Namibian way, which is to fight,” Gerhard Erasmus said on the eve of the game.
Speaking further, the Namibian Star also shed light on the reason behind the issue. He said that due to lack of infrastructure, players do not get a chance to train at night in their country.
“We didn’t find anyone [flood]Lights in Namibia… Day/Night Games,” Erasmus said. “It’s probably a challenge for us in terms of infrastructure, so yes it’s not an accident for those who don’t have [experience]…I think except for players who have played in the Nepal Premier League and the ILT20 and the World Cups that we have played, you are not really used to the lights and training under it very often.”
Namibia’s sore eye:
While Namibia will start the game against India as strong underdogs, they will be hoping to pull off a famous win. Most of India’s batsmen struggled against the US and Namibia will take confidence from this. They have started their campaign with a defeat against the Netherlands and will be keen to open their account soon.
After facing India, they will face America on 15th February in Chennai and Pakistan on 18th February in Colombo.
India wants to organize a clinical show:
Although India won the game against the United States, they suffered a huge scare as most of their batsmen failed to impress. In the end, Suryakumar Yadav’s brilliant half-century and the excellent efforts of the bowlers gave India victory. The hosts would like to perform better against Namibia before taking on Pakistan on Sunday.
