ICC T20 World Cup 2026 | Namibia rue not getting to practice under lights

New Delhi: Namibia are set for a rare night match -- against hosts India -- on Thursday here, but were forced to practice in daylight between 2.00 pm and 3.00 pm. Their opening match on Tuesday against the Netherlands had a 11.00 am start. 

What was even more unjustifiable was Oman, practicing alongside India from 5.00 pm to 8.00 pm, when their match is scheduled for a 3.00 pm start on Friday. Namibia skipper Gerhard Erasmus made his displeasure clear when he addressed the media after his team’s practice here at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Wednesday.     

“Yeah, we haven’t got any lights in Namibia, light games, day/night games or night games in Namibia,” pointed out Gerhard.

“Infrastructure wise it’s probably the challenge for us, so yeah it’s not a casual thing for guys that don’t have. I think for other guys who played in the Nepal Premier League and other tournaments like that and the World Cups that we’ve played, you don’t really get accustomed to lights and train under it very often.

“Yeah, we haven’t been given a night training before this game, I don’t know why, I think India has two night trainings and I could see outside that Canada are going to 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,” he offered. 

After the Netherlands’ match, Namibia coach Craig Williams hoped to have a night session on Wednesday, but that didn’t materialise. 

“I’m just going to be honest with you, for us to play under lights is always going to be difficult because we don’t play that much under lights. I mean we played against India and that was also quite tough for us, so we always prepare as best we can, get the guys in a good mental space …So preparing for India under lights will obviously tick our boxes and try to put the guys in the best position that they can to be able to have a successful game.”