Namibia denied night training ahead of India clash, says Erasmus

Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus has revealed his team was not allocated a night training session in Delhi ahead of their 7 PM fixture against India on Thursday. Namibia played a day game at the venue on February 10 and trained on February 11, but were only given afternoon slots (2-5 PM), preventing them from practicing under lights.

In contrast, India trained in the 6-9 PM slot on both February 10 and 11. Notably, Canada also trained in the same evening slot on Wednesday, despite their next match against UAE on February 13 being a 3 PM start.

"We haven't been given a night training session before this game, I don't know why," Erasmus said on the eve of the match. "India has two night training sessions and I see Canada will have a night training now… but we'll just rock up and do our Namibian way, which is to fight."

The issue is compounded by Namibia's lack of floodlit infrastructure at home, limiting player exposure to day-night conditions. "We haven't got any lights in Namibia… Infrastructure-wise it's probably the challenge for us," Erasmus explained. He noted that only players with experience in overseas leagues or World Cups have regular exposure to playing under lights.

Namibia's next two group matches—against USA in Chennai (February 15) and Pakistan in Colombo (February 18)—are both 3 PM starts.