Namibia disappointed at not being able to train under lights ahead of India game

Twenty four hours after Namibia lost their opening game of the 2026 T20 World Cup to Netherlands, they were back at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi to prepare for their biggest fixture - against India on Thursday. Why were Namibia training in the afternoon though, when their fixture against India will be played under floodlights?

The question became more pertinent when Gerhard Erasmus and his team-mates saw Canada starting to train alongside India under lights, just as Namibia were preparing to leave the venue. Their surprise was because Canada play UAE in Delhi only on Friday.

Erasmus said it was a missed opportunity for Namibia, who don't have the infrastructure at home to play matches - or even train - under lights.

"We haven't got any lights in Namibia," Erasmus said on the eve of the match against India. "Infrastructure wise, it's probably the challenge for us. So yeah, it's not a casual thing. Barring the guys who have played in the Nepal Premier League, ILT20 and the World Cups we have played, you don't get accustomed to lights and train under it very often.

"Yeah, we haven't been given night training before this game. I don't know why. I think India have two night trainings and I see outside that Canada are going to have a night training now. So make of that what you want, but we'll just rock up and do our Namibian way, which is to fight."

The ICC said Namibia's request for a training session under lights had come too late. "All teams were given the training schedules well in advance of the tournament - on 27 January - and requests for change in timings were entertained wherever possible," a spokesperson said. "However, Namibia's request came in only the previous night (February 10) - too late for us to adjust the schedule."

After the loss to Netherlands, Namibia's coach Craig Williams seemed to be under the impression that his team would be training under lights ahead of the India game and was looking forward to making the most of it.

"All we can do is, we've got a night session planned," Williams had said on Tuesday. "I'm just going to be honest with you, for us to play under lights is always going to be difficult because we don't play that much under lights. I mean we played against India and that was also quite tough for us, so we always prepare as best we can, get the guys in a good mental space …So preparing for India under lights will obviously tick our boxes and try to put the guys in the best position that they can to be able to have a successful game."