"Massive moment for Cricket Namibia" - Gerhard Erasmus reflects on T20 World Cup 2021 run

Namibia are one of the associate nations that performed admirably at the T20 World Cup 2021, and captain Gerhard Erasmus reflected on their journey in a video shared by the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday.

Namibia began with a defeat to Sri Lanka, but came back strongly to beat Netherlands and Ireland in the first round Group A to advance to the Super 12.

They got off to a winning start in the Super 12 with victory over Scotland, and although they lost to Afghanistan, Pakistan and New Zealand, it was after putting up a fight.

Speaking about their run, Erasmus said:

"Yeah, obviously for Cricket Namibia it’s been a great journey. It’s such a wonderful tournament to be a part of, playing at the highest level and getting such an opportunity doesn’t come every day for associate countries and we have really tried to make the most of it by progressing through the Group Stage and into the Super 12s."

The skipper continued:

"We have been able to make the most of the tournament by playing against the top nations in the world. That in itself has been a great experience and a learning curve for us. There’s a lot to take home from here. Hopefully this can be a building block for greater things to come."

Erasmus spoke of the morale-boosting win over Ireland that also booked them a place in next year's T20 World Cup in Australia.

"You know, that was a crunch game for us. It had a lot of ramifications, that game in itself. Qualified us not only for the Super 12 stage of the tournament but also the Australian World Cup next year. So massive moment in our careers, massive moment for Cricket Namibia. It’s something that we’ll treasure for the rest of our lives," Erasmus said.

"Namibia have bragging rights among associate nations now" - Gerhard Erasmus

Erasmus said their T20 World Cup 2021 journey gave them "bragging rights" among associate nations.

"During the group stage, we knew that the first challenge against Sri Lanka was going to be a massive one. But in hindsight, that probably set us up for a nice tournament that got us on to a high level of cricket very quickly. And when we got through the Dutch game, we really carried some nice momentum through the rest of the games. And I think that momentum put us in good stead against the Irish guys," Erasmus said.

The Namibia captain added:

"And then, playing Scotland in the first game of the Super 12s, we had all of that momentum behind us now and we played a really good game of cricket there. So yeah we have some bragging rights among associate nations now."

"One of the first steps for an associate country is to become the top associate in that pool and then make your way into world cricket at that level," he continued.

"We have a solid board and administration behind us and a solid group of players that back each other and really work hard under a very strong culture. We really could not have done it without all of those things," he concluded.

Namibia meet India on Monday in their final league match.