Cricket Namibia (CN) on Saturday held an awards ceremony here, where top performers in 2020 and 2021 were rewarded for their achievements.

In her keynote remarks, Minister of Sport, Youth and National Service Agnes Tjongarero said CN has fulfilled its mandate of developing the sport across Namibia and beyond.

This, she said, is evidenced by their recent nominations by the Namibia Sports Awards and the International Cricket Council.

“The girl’s cricket league and development programme is inspiring as it will allow the country to have a large pool of players participating and competing for positions in the national team,” she said.

She called on Namibians to recognise and reward everyone who plays a role in developing sports in the country and wished the Eagles good luck in their next World Cup assignment scheduled for Australia in October.

Meanwhile, the biggest winner of the evening was national team vice-captain JJ Smit, who walked away with the National T20’s Player of the Year, the National 50’s over Player of the Year, the National Players’ Player of the Year Award and the National Player of the Year Award.

The award for most improved National Player of the season went to Michael van Lingen, while the national team coach Pierre de Bruyn was given the award for Coach of the Year.

National team player Jan Frylinck won the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 Best fielder and Best Bowler, while David Wiese captured the awards for ICC T20 World Cup 2021 Player of the tournament and the Best Batter.

In the women’s team, the Bowler and Players’ Player of the Year Award went to Victoria Hamunyela, with Suné Wittman winning the batting award, while Kayleen Green was named Player of the Year for 2021.

Several awards were also handed out to administrators and juniors with the late Dee Thakur, who passed away in July 2021 being honoured posthumously for his contribution to the sport.

Thakur was the head of CN’s high-performance programmes and also the coordinator of coaches’ education.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency