The Namibian senior national Cricket side will take on the South African provisional sides Kwa-Zulu-Natal Inland, North West and the Western Province in the group phase of the African T20 cup, which kicks off on Friday in Pietermaritzburg. The matches against the South African teams will be played in preparation of their crucial away games against Papua New Guinea in the Intercontinental Cup from 16 to 19 October, while also fighting for World Cricket League points against the islanders at the same venue two days later. The Twenty20 cricket tournament is organised by Cricket South Africa and features a combination of South African provincial teams and teams representing other countries, including Kenya, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. “No associate country has ever won a group stage at this event, but that is what we are striving for. We cannot go there to only compete”, Eagles coach Dayanand Thakur explained. Pressure rests on the shoulders of established players such as Sarel Burger, Craig Williams, Gerrie Snyman, Nicolaas and Bernard Scholtz, Helao ya France and Stephen Baard who have all committed to the side for the next two years and are roaring to go. “We had three warm-up matches against a mixed Namibian team over the weekend. And although we lost on two occasions, there are a lot of positives we can take out of it. We got progressively better and hopefully we can take this into the games in South Africa”, the coach further stated. The locals will also face Saudi Arabia in Windhoek in two weeks’ time. “We are currently in a bad position in the Intercontinental Cup and World Cricket League. We must win both games or risk being relegated to a lower division in the future. PNG is a quality side but we have beaten them convincingly last year and we are confident that we can get a good result there”, a determined Thakur said. The ICC Intercontinental Cup is an international first-class cricket tournament between leading associate members. The winner will play four five-day matches against the bottom-ranked Test nation, an event known as the 2018 ICC Test Challenge. Should the winner of the Intercontinental Cup go on to win the ICC Test Challenge, they will become the 11th Test nation. At this point, Namibia has already won against Hong Kong in the first match but fell short to Hong Kong and Afghanistan in the following encounters. The ICC World Cricket League Championship is an elite 50-over competition played between leading associate and affiliate members. It is the pathway for participating teams, is to play in the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018 and subsequently stand a chance to qualify for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. Namibia currently stands at one win and two losses. Less than two weeks later (14 to 22 September), Saudi Arabia will arrive in the Namibian capital for three friendly games. The two nations, whose aim is to build long-term relationships for the future, will play one T20 match on the 16th, followed by two 50 over games the following two days.