T20 World Cup 2024

‘I firmly believe we can defeat Test playing nations’ – David Wiese makes bold claim on Namibian cricket

Namibia all-rounder David Wiese feels that African nation can win against the leading test nations in the World. Namibia showed what they were capable of in the 2021 edition of the 20-20 World Cup. The big pillar behind the resurgence in Namibian Cricket has been David Wiese who formerly played for South Africa and has been a part of various T20 Leagues around the world.

He talked about the experience in the 2021 T20 World Cup which was superb for them and also which won them the hearts of the fans back home. “Last year was a fantastic experience for us, you know. Coming into the first World Cup and to qualify for the Super 12 stage, I think for us to be able to do that and inspire our fans at home. 12 months down the line, we are back at it again and we have to do it all over again. We have had 12 months to reflect on what we did last year and I think people will not take us as lightly as they did. Maybe not the underdog tag this year like it was last year and that has a little bit of pressure on us also to repeat what we did last year,” Wiese told after the match.

Namibia locked horns with Sri Lanka and won the encounter by 55 runs courtesy of a 70 run partnership between Jan Frylinck and JJ Smit which helped them to get to 163 and a solid bowling performance gave the 2003 World Cup host a win against the islanders. “It’s time to show that we are not a one-tournament wonder team. Hopefully we will be successful again,” the player said.

It is nice to learn from different people across T20 Leagues:  David Wiese

“Last year showed us that we can compete on the international stage. We had an opportunity to play against Zimbabwe this year, and we were fortunate to get a positive result. That showed us that we can compete against other Test playing nations,” added the Namibia allrounder. He has been a hot trade in T20 Leagues around the world and he has stressed that there has been a lot of learnings from the environments, players and coaches across leagues. He added that it is only a matter of time when Namibian players will be hot property in franchise cricket.

“I am fortunate to be playing almost 12 months of the year, coming from The Hundred to the CPL and then over here. It has been good, I enjoy playing different tournaments, you get to know different conditions, different coaches, different players and that just improves you as a player the whole time,” he concluded the interview.