Cricket Namibia: National Women Cricket Team Compete in the Kwibuka Tournament in Rwanda

Photo Credit: Cricket Namibia

The Women’s Kwibuka Tournament scheduled to take place in Kigali, Gahanga Cricket Stadium in Rwanda brings excitement to Cricket Namibia.

Cricket Namibia is looking forward to the five-day-long tournament commencing on the 6^th until the 10^th of June 2021, where the National Women team will fearlessly compete amongst four other African cricket nations.

The Kwibuka Tournament is a buildup and preparation for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifiers, and Namibia will compete at the Gahanga stadium against Rwanda (host), Uganda, Botswana, Namibia, and Nigeria. Countries competing in the Kwibuka tournament will be among 10  countries set to play in the African Qualifiers later this year in Botswana.

Cricket Namibia managed to continue all domestic programs through the Covid 19 impacted period and brought International cricket to home soil with our Men’s team. The last Tournament for the National Women’s team was in Scotland in 2019, and CN CEO Johan Muller says that he is happy that the women can start playing International cricket too.

“We are glad that we can now have an International competition of our ladies. Our players and coach have worked hard for the last 10 months to improve the level and skills of our players. We are looking forward to seeing what the impact of that would be.”

Photo Credit: LinkedIn profile photo of Johan Muller

Our Women’s team is currently ranked 23^rd in the world and one of our goals during this upcoming tournament is to move up on the rankings, which falls in line with our vision to be in the top 12 by April 2022 and would also like to establish our Women’s team as top three in Africa. “The competition is between African countries, so this platform gives us the ideal opportunity to achieve our goals.”

Women’s National Headcoach Francois van der Merwe is excited to finally start playing cricket after and is looking forward to carrying the Eagles badge with pride on and off-field. “We just want to go play an entertaining brand of cricket and execute all the hard work from the practice sessions and put into action at the Kwibuka Tournament.”

Van der Merwe commended the team for a drastic improvement of the squad over the past eight months, and that the ultimate 24 players have been playing regular intersquad games.

Our coach and players are extremely passionate and committed to making an impact on the world stage. We are looking to compete in the Uganda Tournament later this year and in the Commonwealth Qualifier in January 2022. What we are extremely positive about is the high number of talented u/19 players we have in our development programs and who are making significant strides to improve their skills.

Squad: Irené van Zyl (c), Yasmeen Khan (vc), Kayleen Green, Didi Foerster, Sylvia Shihepo, Reehana Khan, Arrasta Diergardt, Suné Wittmann, Victoria Hamunyela, Adri van der Merwe, Namusha Shiwomwenyo, Wilka Mwatile, Edelle van Zyl, Mezerly !GarasesNational Women Cricket Team Compete in the Kwibuka Tournament in Rwanda

Management Staff

National Headcoach:  Francois van der Merwe

Assistant Coach: Gerhard Lotter

Team Manager: Hestelle Haccou

Fixtures

6^th June 2021 – Namibia v Nigeria – 09h30

7^th June 2021 – Namibia v Uganda – 13h50

9^th June 2021 – Namibia v Botswana – 13h50

10^th June 2021 – Namibia v Rwanda – 09h30

11^th June 2021 – Semi Finals – 09h30 & 13h50

12^th June 2021 – Third place play off – 09h30

12^th June 2021 – Final – 13h50

Cricket Namibia