Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus is left perplexed with the training schedule ahead of his team's game against India in the T20 World Cup. The two teams are set to face each other today at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. But Namibia didn't get to train under the lights even once in the lead-up to the fixture. They played an 11 AM game against the Netherlands at the same venue on February 10 and opted to practice the very next day too.
But they had to train in the 2-5 PM slot, which doesn't allow them to get used to practicing under the lights. On the other hand, Team India trained on February 10 and 11 in the 6-9 PM slot. Interestingly, the hosts were accompanied by Canada's training on Wednesday at the same time, despite the fact that their match is at 3 PM on February 13 against the UAE.
Namibia skipper Erasmus pointed out the same in the pre-match press conference, but stated that his team would put up a fight anyway. "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," he said.
Erasmus highlights lack of exposure for Namibia team under the lights back home
Moreover, Erasmus also informed that the team doesn't get to train under the lights back home, as Namibia faces infrastructural issues. They bring no experience of playing or training at night due to the same reason unless some of their players feature in T20 leagues across the world.
"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," Erasmus added.
Namibia's next two fixtures after the India clash are also day games, starting at 3 PM, against the USA in Chennai on Februaty 15 and Pakistan in Colombo on February 18.
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