Namibia's hosting of the ICC Under-19 World Cup has been a resounding success and an important learning curve ahead of next year's senior ICC World Cup.
Although the under-19 Cricket World Cup is still in progress, Namibia's role as a co-host is now over, with the rest of the matches now moving to Zimbabwe.
Namibia hosted 16 matches at the FNB Namibia Cricket Ground and the HP Oval in Windhoek.
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Cricket Namibia chief executive Johan Muller says they have passed their test with flying colours.
"There was a lot of work behind the scenes and the integration of international production companies, branding companies, the media and the ICC media formed a big part of that and we are very proud of how the tournament ran in the end," he says.
"We received quite a lot of compliments from ICC senior staff on how we handled it and also how prepared we were for it. It's a tournament that for us started more than a year ago when we had the first ICC visit from an infrastructure and requirements perspective," he adds.
With Namibia due to co-host the ICC Cricket World Cup next year along with South Africa and Zimbabwe, Muller says it was great preparation for next year's event.
"It was great to have the experience of hosting the event at this level, and it was brilliant from a preparation perspective for the 2027 Men's World Cup, which will bring more people in terms of production units, more crew and more international participants, but it also brings a major spectators component and international tourists. So in that sense, it was good preparation, and we are very proud of how our facilities performed," he says.
"The feedback we got was extremely positive - from the production unit, the media, the events team of the ICC, all the way through to the commentators, the team managers and the coaches. They highly valued and appreciated our people, how we organised the event, how we treated them, how we reacted to their queries and questions and how prepared we were to host this level of an event," he adds.
Great support of local fans
Muller says although the turnout of foreign visitors was not that great, he was impressed by the local support of matches.
"We knew we would only have some of the parents of the teams travelling along, but what was so delightful to see was the Namibian public that came out to watch some quality cricket. Last Sunday, the Australia versus South Africa match had 1 700 people that purchased tickets, and it was just a fantastic atmosphere. Besides that we had between 300 and 500 spectators at quite a number of matches, and bearing in mind that the home team didn't even play, which is normally the biggest drawcard, I'm very happy with the turnout," he says.
"We saw in Zimbabwe, the matches that Zimbabwe didn't play in took place in front of empty stadiums, while we had a lot of people coming to watch random cricket, so that was great to see, and people enjoyed coming out for an outing, regardless of who was playing. That is reassuring, especially with the busy calendar ahead and a lot of international cricket where we would love to attract more people to come and watch those matches," he adds.
Muller says they used the opportunity to host an Africa Cricket Association meeting with cricket leaders throughout Africa.
"During the event the chairman of the ICC, Jay Shah, announced that he will be visiting Namibia for a two-day event, so we utilised that opportunity to invite all the presidents or members who form part of the Africa Cricket Association, so that we could call an Africa Cricket Association council meeting," he says.
"We had some really good engagements with our counterparts from other African countries, who showed great interest in the stadium and in what we achieved from a development perspective. The meeting with Jay Shah also highlighted how we, as African countries, want to drive cricket in Africa. It was a highly successful one-day event, and it was good to have all those leaders with us," he says.
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The under-19 World Cup, meanwhile, has now entered the Super Six stage where the top two teams in group A and B will qualify for the semi-finals.
Australia are currently leading group 1 with six points, followed by Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and West Indies on four points each, while England are leading group 2 on six points, followed by India and Pakistan on four points each.
Muller says defending champions Australia have impressed him.
"I'm struggling to see how anyone will beat Australia, but obviously we haven't seen India or England who are playing in Zimbabwe. They are both quite strong and have shown that they are a class above the others," he adds.
