Don't know why we have not been given training sessions under lights: Namibia captain
Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus on Wednesday took a slight dig at the organisers for not scheduling their training sessions in the night ahead of their T20 World Cup game against India under lights.
Key Points
- Namibia were not given any night practice sessions despite playing India under lights, while India trained twice at night.
- With no floodlights back home, Namibian players lack day-night match exposure and would have benefited from night training.
- Gerhard Erasmus questioned the scheduling fairness but said the team would still 'fight the Namibian way'.
Training disadvantage
Namibia had played a day game against Netherlands on Monday and both their training sessions on the following two days were held in daylight. India, on the other hand, trained in the night twice in the lead up to the game.
Considering Namibia don't have the infrastructure for day night games back home, they would have welcomed some time under lights ahead of the India match on Thursday.
Infrastructure gap
"Yeah, we haven't been given a night training (session) before this game, I don't know why. I think India has two night training (sessions) and I see outside that Canada will have a night training now, so make of that what you want, but we'll just rock up and do our Namibian way, which is to fight," Erasmus said.
Canada, who take on the UAE in an afternoon game here on Friday, trained alongside the Indian team at the Feroz Shah Kotla. That was not lost on Erasmus.
Captain’s subtle dig
"We haven't got any (flood)lights in Namibia... the day/night games. Infrastructure wise it's probably the challenge for us, so yeah it's not a casual thing for guys that don't have (experience)...
"I think barring the guys who played in the Nepal Premier League and the ILT20 and the World Cups that we've played, you don't really get accustomed to lights and training under it very often," said Erasmus.
Namibia lost their opening game against the Netherlands and face USA and Pakistan in their remaining league fixtures. Both those games are scheduled to start at 3pm.
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