Namibia questions ICC over unfair training schedule ahead of India clash

Namibia cricket team captain Gerhard Erasmus has questioned why his side was not given a night training session ahead of their under-lights ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 clash against defending champions India today at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.

"Yeah, we haven't been given a night training (session) before this game, I don't know why. I think India has two night training (sessions) and I see outside that Canada will 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," Erasmus said.

Namibia played a day match against the Netherlands on Monday and then trained in daylight on the following two days, he said, while India trained twice at night in the lead-up to the fixture.

The question became more pertinent when Erasmus and his teammates, just as Namibia were preparing to leave the venue, saw Canada starting to train alongside India in a night session at the same venue despite Canada being scheduled to play an afternoon match against the UAE on Friday.

Erasmus said the issue mattered because Namibia have limited experience playing under lights, as they do not have floodlights back home and do not compete in many night or day-night match-ups.

"We haven't got any (flood) lights in Namibia... the day/night games. Infrastructure-wise, it's probably the challenge for us, so yeah, it's not a casual thing for guys that don't have (experience)..." he said.

"I think barring the guys who played in the Nepal Premier League and the ILT20 and the World Cups that we've played, you don't really get accustomed to lights and training under it very often," Erasmus added.

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," they added.

Namibia qualified for the tournament after winning the Africa qualifier in Harare but began their campaign with a defeat against the Netherlands. They face the United States national cricket team and Pakistan cricket team in their remaining group fixtures, both scheduled to start at 3pm.