ICC T20 World Cup: Namibia and Netherlands call for a level playing field

Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus and Netherlands all-rounder Colin Ackermann struck a similar note at Delhi's Arun Jaitley Stadium on Monday, February 9, urging the ICC to schedule more international matches for associate sides against top-ranked opposition.

Both teams, drawn in a group featuring India and Pakistan, have had limited match practice going into the tournament. The Netherlands last played international cricket in September, touring Bangladesh, while Namibia played a solitary warm-up fixture against South Africa in October as part of their preparations for the T20 World Cup 2026.

In contrast, India have played 28 international matches since September 2025.

With associate nations increasingly pushing full-member teams - as seen in Nepal's recent showing against England and the Netherlands' spirited performance against Pakistan—questions have once again been raised about the lack of consistent exposure for smaller nations.

Erasmus pointed out that associate teams often fade around the 14th or 15th over mark, a phase he believes comes down to experience and familiarity with high-pressure moments.

Ackermann echoed those sentiments moments later, noting that the Netherlands' last international outing against a full-member nation came several months ago.

"One thing lacking is regular exposure against bigger teams. Coming into this tournament, our last match against a full-member nation was against Bangladesh last year. That's something we're trying to change—playing more matches against stronger teams. We train extremely hard as a group, but we definitely need more match exposure against top teams," Ackermann said ahead of the Netherlands' clash with Namibia.

The lack of guaranteed match practice before a world tournament paints a worrying picture of how the international calendar is structured, but Erasmus suggested that progress is being made, at least in Namibia's case.

"We've been very lucky. The ICC have supported us in building our facilities over the last two years. We've got hosting rights for the 2026 Under-19 World Cup and the 2027 Men's 50-over World Cup, and they've been great in helping us build infrastructure. We now have our first cricket field of our own," Erasmus said.

"We don't have to share with rugby anymore. We've got a high-performance setup with gyms and recovery rooms, and enough turf nets and strips to train properly. So the answer is more frequent games, and also more resources and infrastructure," he added.

For the Netherlands, the situation is slightly different. Several of their players are regulars in County Cricket, giving them consistent exposure to top-level competition in the UK.

Despite a narrow loss to Pakistan in their opening match, Ackermann believes it is time for the Dutch to start thinking beyond the group stage. To improve their readiness, the Netherlands held preparatory camps in South Africa and Mumbai ahead of the tournament - preparation that showed in their performance against Pakistan.

"In the immediate future, our goal in this World Cup is to reach the semi-finals. I believe we have the team and the skills to achieve that. It hasn't started in the best way, but we still have three big games ahead," Ackermann said.

With matches against Namibia and India coming up, Ackermann added that the Netherlands have beaten Test-playing nations before and are capable of doing so again.

"We have great self-belief as a team. We've shown in the past that we can compete with Test nations, so there's a lot of confidence in the group. This team has worked extremely hard over the last six months to become the best version of itself, and I'm sure you'll see that in the next three games," he concluded.

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