Delhi: Namibia cricket captain Hehard Erasmus has expressed his frustration over his team’s lack of night training ahead of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 clash with defending champions India at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi today.
Namibia played a one-day match against the Netherlands on Monday and then trained during the day for the next two days. In contrast, India prepared under lights ahead of the match.
The issue became more significant when Erasmus and his teammates watched as Canada started the night session at the same venue, despite their home game against the United Arab Emirates scheduled for the afternoon.
“Yeah, we didn’t train at night before this game, I don’t know why,” Erasmus said. “I think India had two night training sessions and now I’ve seen training under lights in Canada. You have to do that, but we’ll bounce back and fight our Namibian way.
Erasmus highlighted that playing under lights was a challenge for Namibia, who have little experience in day-night matches due to the lack of floodlights at home.
“In Namibia we don’t have lights for day-night games. Infrastructure-wise, it’s a challenge for us, so it’s not a normal thing for inexperienced players,” he explained.
“Except for those who have played in the Nepal Premier League, ILT20 or previous World Cups, you don’t really get used to the lights and training under them very often,” he added.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has responded that Namibia’s request came too late.
“All teams were given training schedules in advance of the match – on January 27 – and requests to change timings were entertained as far as possible,” a spokesperson said. “However, Namibia’s request came the night before (February 10) – too late for us to adjust the schedule.”
Namibia, who qualified for the tournament after winning the African qualifiers in Harare, started their campaign with a loss against the Netherlands.
They now face USA and Pakistan in the remaining group matches scheduled at 3pm local time.