Namibia to co-host 2027 Cricket World Cup

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The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday announced Namibia as co-hosts of the 2027 Cricket World Cup, alongside South Africa and Zimbabwe.

This was also confirmed by Cricket Namibia (CN) Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Johan Muller, who said they had submitted a joint-bid with the two Southern African nations.

“It is correct. We did work with South Africa to co-host the 50 overs World Cup with South Africa and Zimbabwe. Primarily, South Africa will be the main hosts of the 2027 event,” Muller told Nampa.

He added that this is a new chapter for Namibia and it will now force CN to alter their strategic plan in order to incorporate the hosting of the world cup.

Muller said while not much has been confirmed yet, he was hoping that the country can host between four to six matches.

“This will be an opportunity to market Namibia to the whole world through sports tourism. A lot of money will come in as many supporters will follow their teams to Namibia, meaning increased business to many sectors of the industry,” he explained.

He further stated that CN will also have to improve the country’s cricket and general infrastructure in order to meet the requirements of hosting a 50 over world cup tournament.

The hosting of the world cup will also require that many people invest in the sport, especially in development so as to stir interest from Namibians, he added.

Meanwhile, Cricket South Africa’s Chief Executive Officer, Pholetsi Moseki, was quoted by online media as saying he believes South Africa, along with Zimbabwe and Namibia, will deliver a ‘Beautiful African World Cup’.

‘It is extremely important for the continent and it is possibly one of the fastest-growing games on the continent and this will be presented as an African World Cup. We haven’t had it in a very long time and it is really exciting,’ Moseki said.

The news come after Namibia performed extremely well in the Twenty-Twenty (2021) Cricket World Cup, where they won three out of eight matches at the tournament currently underway in the United Arab Emirates.

The last World Cup hosted on African soil was another joint-hosting by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya in 2003.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency