Namibia’s Stunning Upset Over Sri Lanka Makes A Mockery Of Cricket’s T20 World Cup Format

It took just one match to make a mockery of the T20 World Cup format. In the month-long tournament’s opener, played in the regional Victorian city of Geelong which has a population of just 250,000, Associate nation Namibia trounced former champions and newly-minted Asian Cup champions Sri Lanka by 55 runs.

An upset looked highly unlikely in the tournament’s soft launch of a ‘first round’ after Namibia’s top-order crashed only for a brilliant 69-run seventh-wicket stand between Jan Frylinck and JJ Smit powered the African nation to a highly competitive 7 for 163 on a drop-in wicket at Kardinia Park – the home of Australian Football League premiers Geelong Cats.

After a slick bowling and fielding effort, Namibia tore through a rather toothless Sri Lanka batting order to complete a famous victory. Sri Lanka, a formidable short-form team in major tournaments over the years, arrived in Australia confident after a surprise recent Asia Cup triumph though question marks can be raised over whether some of the power teams were fully invested amid searing heat in the UAE
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Sri Lanka are rated at best as a dark horse contender and clearly don’t have the star-power their famous teams across formats in their heyday of the 1990s and 2000s. Still, it was widely dubbed the greatest upset in T20 World Cup history spanning 15 years and eight editions.

But Namibia are emerging having made the Super 12 place on their T20 World Cup debut last year in the UAE. They are rising on-and-off-field with several of its administrators influential behind the scenes, particularly among the politicking in Africa.

Such its growing heft, Namibia last year were named as co-host of the 2027 ODI World Cup alongside South Africa and Zimbabwe – the continent’s only Full Member nations.

There was the usual derogatory use of ‘’minnows’ when framing Namibia’s victory but they are ranked 14th in T20Is – a lofty ranking in a so-called global sport. Namibia’s commanding performance only further justified their place – and the other highly competitive Associates in this draw – in an event marked by two peculiar phases.

The first round boasts eight nations, lower ranked Full Members and the best Associates, with the top four to qualify into the Super 12 stage alongside the already qualified eight teams.

The ICC’s window dressing doesn’t mask what everyone unfortunately thinks about the opening week – a glorified qualification for the main draw which kick-starts on October 22 with a sold out clash at the historic Sydney Cricket Ground between Australia and New Zealand.

Cricket over the years has often been criticized as being elitist with not enough emphasize on developing the sport beyond its traditional base. Decisions lay with the all-powerful ICC board comprised mostly of boards from the 12 Full Members.

The truncated 10-team 50-over World Cup was indicative of this myopic vision, while this current T20 World Cup version is only just a little better. Fortunately, there does seem to be more appetite amongst the sport’s power brokers to start being more inclusive and grow the game.

The 2024 T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and the U.S. will feature 20 teams in the main draw in a format which starts resembling something befitting the status of a ‘World Cup’, while the 2027 ODI World Cup will have 14 teams.

After Namibia’s upset, the disappointed throng of Sri Lanka fans – with Victoria boasting a large expatriate community – fled leaving an almost empty stadium for the second match in the double header between Netherlands and the UAE in a rather ugly look for the tournament’s opening day.

The Netherlands escaped with a thrilling victory between two nations believing they deserve Full Membership only to be stymied by strict ICC criteria.

The UAE apparently tick the boxes for coveted membership, which leads to substantially more funding and an important spot on the ICC’s all-powerful board, although have been thwarted by reluctance from Full Members to play them in bilaterals leading to the rise of their controversial new T20 league in a bid for another income stream.

The UAE have a chance to press their Full Membership claims in the week ahead and maybe beyond in thankfully the last T20 World Cup played under its current head-scratching format.