U19 World Cup | South Africa | Jan-Feb 2024

[sam_ahm]

I just saw the highlights of that NZ v AFG game, Rowe is quite some bowler. Could be a future star for NZ senior side.

That runout at non striker was fair. As a batter you need to wait until the ball is bowled.

[ZIMDOGGY]

At time of writing, Sri Lanka getting pumped by Namibia, 5-71.

[Googly]

Google says the Namibian population is 2.5 million and 6% are white. That's 150 000. Assume half are male-75000,
conservatively assume there are 10 000 schoolboys and that 5000 play cricket. They're at school for 14 years and you'll pick an u19 side from the last 2 years, or 14% of 5000. Thats 700 white players who probably go to better schools with good cricket facilities in SA and Namibia. Halve that number just for the hell of it. 350.
They'll dramatically outnumber the black Namibians who play cricket. But I'd thumb suck that they have a pool of about 400 u19's to choose from, of whom 120 will be fair to good cricketers simply because they have access to better facilities and play a higher standard of cricket. Halve that again for the sake of argument. 60

Here in Zim we pick out u19 from about 50 white kids of whom 90% are very ordinary and from about 200 black kids, again 90% are very average. Of these boys only about 50 have access to decent facilities. So we have 100 kids you can look at and maybe 20 tops would be good enough that you look twice.

My point being that "lowly" Namibia have almost 3 times as many good cricketers to choose an u19 side from.

[Googly]

I might be way off the mark of course

[secretzimbo]

Ya and I think majority of their side is SA schooled as well, so even better.

We are staring down the barrel at all levels really.

[secretzimbo]

Disaster if they win today

[pillowprocter]

At time of writing, Sri Lanka getting pumped by Namibia, 5-71.

It's not them, Kimberley is just a shit pitch. So far this tournament the runs per wicket over there is just over 13

[ZIMDOGGY]

Google says the Namibian population is 2.5 million and 6% are white. That's 150 000. Assume half are male-75000,
conservatively assume there are 10 000 schoolboys and that 5000 play cricket. They're at school for 14 years and you'll pick an u19 side from the last 2 years, or 14% of 5000. Thats 700 white players who probably go to better schools with good cricket facilities in SA and Namibia. Halve that number just for the hell of it. 350.
They'll dramatically outnumber the black Namibians who play cricket. But I'd thumb suck that they have a pool of about 400 u19's to choose from, of whom 120 will be fair to good cricketers simply because they have access to better facilities and play a higher standard of cricket. Halve that again for the sake of argument. 60

Here in Zim we pick out u19 from about 50 white kids of whom 90% are very ordinary and from about 200 black kids, again 90% are very average. Of these boys only about 50 have access to decent facilities. So we have 100 kids you can look at and maybe 20 tops would be good enough that you look twice.

My point being that "lowly" Namibia have almost 3 times as many good cricketers to choose an u19 side from.

While I think some of your methodology may be a little off, your ultimate point that Namibia have a bigger base is likely true. They may not have as much of a cricket culture, but the Namibia/Sa afrikaner link is strong and i think there is massive overlap in heritage and qualification, migration etc. I think many SA based players will casually have Namibian grandparents or kids born in SA have migrated due to SA being a clusterfuck.

[secretzimbo]

This pitch is bloody terrible

[Donald]

Namibia 19-3.

I take it we are all rooting for sri lanka and a winner takes all match between zimbabwe and namibia in few days