Gary Kirsten (file photo) NEW DELHI: Gary Kirsten spent Sunday afternoon watching the Namibian batsmen practice their long shots at the Arun Jaitley Cricket Stadium. This is where Gerhard Erasmus-led Namibia will open their T20 World Cup campaign against the Netherlands in two days’ time.The Feroz Shah Kotla grounds are not new to Kirsten, who won the ODI World Cup with India in 2011. It was during this campaign at the same venue that India teamed up with the Netherlands. Fifteen years on, he’s back in the National capital with a new team he joined as a consultant a few months ago, and the opposition will once again be the Dutch.“Obviously he knows the conditions well. He knows India well. He has so much knowledge about pitches and pitches, cities and everything,” Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus told TimesofIndia.com on the sidelines of his team’s training session. Erasmus also pointed out how Kirsten’s presence has helped him as captain of the side as well. “I think what comes to me as a leader and a captain, with one foot in the door of management and one foot in the door of the players, it’s always so important for me to have that connection between the players and the management. As a captain, sometimes you have to facilitate that. When you have a senior member and a mentor like him, I think it resonates well with the players and brings out the best in the players,” the Namibia captain said. This is Namibia’s fourth consecutive T20 World Cup appearance and buoyed by the presence of World Cup-winning coach Gary Kirsten in their corner, they hit the ground running in their first practice session ahead of the opening match of the 2026 T20 World Cup. Kirsten watched closely during Namibia’s first training session in Delhi and had personal interviews with several of the team’s players. Team Namibia arrived at the ground around 1:30pm and had a full throttle training session. Namibia’s batsmen, including captain Gerhard Erasmus, Ruben Trumpelmann, JJ Smit, Jan Frylinck and Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, focused mainly on shooting from distance, polishing their reverse sweeps and scoops. Meanwhile, the bowlers were trying to reset their death bowling as they tried to hone their yorkers and other variations.Gary Kirsten provided the players with his valuable input throughout the session. “He (Kirsten) helps with everything. There’s no department he doesn’t help. He’s a workaholic. He helps us all the time. You know, I mean for me as a young coach, to learn from someone like him, it’s just incredible. So he helps in all departments (weather, batting, whatever, bowling, Namibian soil conditions, red soil, whatever,” head coach Craig Williams said after his team’s practice. Namibia defeated Sri Lanka in the T20 World Cup 2022 and defeated their neighbors South Africa in a one-off T20 match last year. But with Namibia drawn in Group A with India, Pakistan, the USA and the Netherlands, they are not thinking “too far ahead” at the moment. “Once you think too far ahead, (it) creates a lot of anxiety in the group. So we break it down 100 percent into one-on-one play, one ball at a time. And I suppose at the end of that day you can focus on the next day and then, yeah, we’ll see how the results go,” Williams said ahead of his high-pressure match in the Netherlands on Saturday. “We are 100 per cent thinking about the Holland (Netherlands) game as our first game. And then yes, there are 240 balls in the game. If we win most of those balls, then we have a good chance in the game,” Williams said.Namibia secured their place in the tournament after a commanding run in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 Africa Qualification in Harare, finishing as unbeaten top of Group A and backing it up with a dominant semi-final victory over Tanzania.It is Namibia’s fourth appearance in the Men’s T20 World Cup. They also participated in the 2021 (Super 12s), 2022 (Group Stage) and 2024 (Group Stage) editions.
