With the continuous growth and development of girls and women’s cricket in Namibia, Outjo hosted the first ever hardball junior girls cricket development festival recently as part of Outjo initiative to encourge more girls to play crcket, the festival was hosted for three days as from the 02 to the 04 May 2018 at the Outjo sports stadium respectively. The festival was also attended by the u13 Nara girls team from Walvis Bay.
This festival is part of Cricket Namibia’s long-term women’s/girls development plans, which is to give all girls in Namibia the opportunity to play competitive cricket. Giving them the necessary exposure to learn, grow and develop their personal cricketing skills which will later on prepare them for the future as they could one day be part national women’s cricket team.
The festival was organised in a very competitive structure, the fast ball format known as the T20 and all the teams enjoyed it. The Nara girls team toured to Outjo for the first time for this festival, competed against the Outjo girls and Outjo boys u13. All the teams showed great talent, team work, sportsmanship and most importantly all the players enjoyed the festival. The festival did not just stand to educate but also to grow the relation of communities by coming together to play a unified game of cricket, creating friendships and even learning from each other about the sport, through the sport.
The junior girls cricket development festival was also aimed promoting the sport of cricket in Outjo, create awareness within young girls and further develop the standard and quality of girls cricket in Namibia, Outjo is really proud and excited to be able to organised a very successful festival which contributed significantly towards the development and growth of Namibian cricket within girls who are from the age group of u/11 to u15 years of age. Outjo is also very privileged to have the support of local companies who showed interest in supporting the development of cricket in the township, the festival was supported by our usual sponsors namely Sanlam Namibia and Santam Insurance Namibia which was the official sponsor of the festival, Greendoor Investments 13th CC and Erongo Foods Products Pty Ltd, speaking at the opening ceremony of the festival one of the sponsors, Mrs Lizelle Krenz managing director of Greendoor Investments 13th CC said she is very impressed to see such committed and talented young girls so passionate about cricket and playing with high energy levels. Mrs Lizelle Krenz said she is proud for her company to be supporting the development of cricket in Outjo and will continue to assist wherever possible going forward.
In addition Mr Deon van Zyl from Sanlam Namibia and Santam Insurance Namibia said he is very happy and proud of what Cricket Namibia is doing in remote areas by providing opportunities to disadvantaged children to play cricket and he further said there’s indeed great talent amongst the girls and more needs to be done to grow the sport and offer them more competitive playing opportunities.
Prize giving
A ceremony where all the best performing girls received signed certificates from Mr Deon van Zyl from Sanlam Namibia and Santam Insurance Namibia, Theresia Kazimbu received captain of the festival, Maria Nguali player of the festival, Merzerly Gorases batsman of the festival, Mathilde Kakolo wicketkeeper of the festival respectively. The festival overall winners were the Nara girls’ team from Walvis Bay who won all their matches and were crowned champions of the Outjo girl’s cricket festival.
Source: Wilhem Tuhafeni