ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2021

November 7, 2021

Pierre De Bruyn

Dubai International Stadium

Namibia

Pre Match Media Conference

Q. How do you sum up Namibia's journey in Super 12 of the tournament? And also how much is the team excited for playing against India tomorrow in Dubai?

PIERRE DE BRUYN: If I can summarise it very quickly, it's been an amazing journey. It's been, look, emotional roller coaster for all of us. We came here with the expectations, but I think we exceeded that. And with that, the pressure mounted, and these players have really announced themselves.

The storey was a cricket Namibia storey for our country, but a global storey where we've inspired not just our kids back home and young children, but I think globally we've really won a lot of hearts. And it's just congratulations to this team.

The Super 12 for us, honestly, it's been an amazing experience. It's never nice to lose. We don't take the field knowing that we are going to be blown over by another team.

We really want to compete, and I think we've done ourselves proud the way we've conducted ourselves on the field. Starting with that first win against Scotland and then Afghanistan and then, I think, the match, our best match was definitely against Pakistan.

It was facing the best in the world at times can be overwhelming. And it's all about staying composed. And this team, especially with the ball, has shown that they are willing to wrestle.

They are willing to hold on and compete like we have the last game against New Zealand, 94 for 4 after 16 overs. So the learnings for us is something that we are just going to treasure that. We're going to hold on very hard to that because those lessons, good or bad, they are not only going to make you a better team they're going to make you a better player. And I'm very excited to revisit all those lessons when we depart.

Q. The way that India's batters have been playing in the last few games, have you made any specific plans in order to nullify them and to make sure that Namibia and the campaign end on a high?

PIERRE DE BRUYN: Look, we've analysed the Indian team. As players, you always look to play ahead of a game like that or any game. We know up front we'll bat the way they play.

If you're not going to execute your plans and with that execute your skills, then they will punish you. That's a guarantee.

We want to finish this campaign on a high. You know, it's been 45 days in this bubble. There are no excuses. Tomorrow's platform for any player, any player to face the best in the world, is a platform where you should treasure that moment. You should be up for it.

There's no doubt that this team is going to be up for it. I think it's just important for us to play good, competitive cricket.

We've played 40 over cricket in this group. We've not been blown away by any team in 10 overs or 12 overs or anything like that. We've been willing to stretch the game and just to give ourselves a good chance against these type of opposition.

And tomorrow's just the classic game, where you go in and you need to own your own. You need to take brutal accountability for what you're going to bring for the team tomorrow. It's the last little push.

And I say that because it's been a long tour and it's been an emotional roller coaster to say the least.

Q. A lot of the talk in the buildup to tomorrow's games unfortunately is about India and Afghanistan and New Zealand. How is your camp feeling at the moment? Like you said, you guys haven't been comprehensively beaten like the other guys who have come through to the Super 12s. So what constitutes -- what are you looking forward to your team doing tomorrow, particularly? Something that you're specifically looking forward to.

PIERRE DE BRUYN: We need to be better in certain areas. And I think if you look at our last couple of games against quality batsmen, especially at the death, we hold on for 80 percent of our innings with the ball. We scrap. We fight.

But, you know, we've got to execute our plans at the death in a little bit of a more brave way. We've got plans. We've got death plans. We've got the skills.

To hit a yorker. We've trained for two years. And I think for me the bowlers just need to go back tomorrow to that area because it's an area where you always are going to be under the pump. You're always going to be under pressure.

When a batsman like the type of batsman, when they come at you, they're not going to let go. If you're going to back off, they're going to make life very tough for you.

I think tomorrow, a big goal for us is to make sure that in the death that we execute our plans but we execute our skills with confidence because we have been good previously building up to the World Cup in the death and that's an area where we want to be clinical, as well as maybe up front with the bat, in the powerplay, is we talk about freedom and play your game and stuff, but we also don't want to cause too much damage up front. 30 for 4, you're chasing the game and it becomes hard to put something on the board you're chasing anything.

There's a bit of a balance there, but there are definitely areas where we want to be very good or improve.

And from an extra point of view, for extras, bowlers, I think we should be right up there in terms of clinical way that we've bowled from that perspective.

Q. You talked -- first of all, congratulations on your performance so far. You talked about sort of how the fans back home have been seeing you and fans around the world have been seeing your team. One thing that's struck me in this tournament is the respect that Namibia has earned from all the opposition. From all the teams you've played. And I saw that even most strikingly in the Pakistan game. Obviously after the match, the videos circulating on the Internet when they came to your locker room. But also during the match. Obviously respect for David because he plays in the country. He knows the Pakistani top bowlers and he was able to sort of do well against them. But even for your other batsmen, for Craig, for Gerhard, how much does it mean to you and your team who came in here with a lot to prove that there is no country in this tournament that is not taking you seriously when you get on the field?

PIERRE DE BRUYN: Thank you for the compliment. And I think you've summarised it beautifully there. We're a team with a very strong, healthy culture. It's a culture that we started building three years ago. It didn't happen overnight.

Our culture is all about pride. It's all about being selfless. It's all about courage. And then the main one is all about inspiration. Those four pillars are the pillars that's kept us breathing for the last three years. Kept us going.

It's also made us successful. And I believe that those values are the values that's made us good people on and off the field. We respect opposition. We respect the game. And I believe that's why the opposition, they respect us. They have all reached out. Not just on the field or after games, but at hotels, you know the pro tiers they have been amazing for us shared the same hotel for a long time.

I've always said to the players when we qualified that last game against Ireland in Sharjah. I've said to the players you've now built yourself a very special reputation. And that reputation is something you've created through living good values and believing this culture and living this culture.

And that reputation, it didn't fall out of the sky. That reputation came with extreme sacrifice that these guys have put in. I say this over and over again.

We've got 16, 17 players in our national team that we picked a team from. And what these guys have put in and what they have done in this World Cup, for me, is incredible. But it's also something where we want to show the global world, the cricket world that a small nation, an Associate country, that they also belong.

That's how we feel. That respect that New Zealand has showed us the other night, or day, the Pakistan team. It makes you feel good. It makes you feel that you actually belong here and you're allowed to compete with these teams.

I want to thank these teams for reaching out to associate teams. There are a lot of Associate teams out there that just need that little bit of comfort and feeling wanted and we've certainly felt that.

Q. Among the standouts for your team has been the left-hand pacers. They've done incredibly well actually, the likes of Trumpelmann and all. As you're going into this game, do you have any, can you say something about the whole pace attack, especially the left-hand pace attack you have?

PIERRE DE BRUYN: We've got quite a unique bowling attack. We've got a few left-arm seamers, more than usual, that you can see in David Wiese, is a right-hand seamer, a guy like Ruben Trumpelmann, really the way he's set himself up to start that first over, for me has been excellent.

It's that theory of that first punch that he's created as a bowler. And who will forget that over against, that first over against Scotland with three wickets. All of a sudden in the space of six balls the game is just on its back.

And Ruben has really worked hard from a physical point of view he's definitely got some more ball speed in him. We're going to work on that.

We're basically working on that physically. And I feel that against an Indian team, Rohit Sharma, those type of batters, obviously there's going to be nerves. But don't change what's been working for you.

When you get the ball up there it swings, and there's better energy on the ball. So don't change that. And then the other seamers, a guy like Frylinck, he's always in the background just doing the grubby work. If you look at where he is on the bowling list for this World Cup, he's their back. He relies on skill. He's our little street fighter. He will come and clean up if there's a big over the previous over. He backs himself in the death.

So our bowling attack with the experience of David Wiese, also with a new ball he can get it to swing.

Against India, those first two, three overs will be critical for us to be on the button. We've shown that against Pakistan. We've had Pakistan in the powerplay 29 without loss. So we are capable of using that new ball with what we have in our bowling attack.

Q. I'm keen to understand in terms of the bigger picture what you are hoping the impact of your performance is at the T20 World Cup will mean for development programmes in Namibia and getting more bats and balls in the hands of children in the country and ultimately growing the sport to the population there.

PIERRE DE BRUYN: Absolutely. And our organisation, with our CEO, Johan Muller, he's been proactive in the last year developing the game in all regions in Namibia. What we've done here at the World Cup just adds more financial support to keep on taking these development programmes through the next level in Namibia to get bats and balls in hands of young children and young girls, especially.

So I'm just glad that, as I say, a national's men's team could have contributed financially. Also the way we've conducted ourselves as a team. Maybe an extra additional sponsor will knock on our door just because they like us because of the way we played or we're respected in the global cricketing world.

But it's contributed to the organisation, to say, listen, let's keep on growing this game. And I'm 100 percent convinced that it will be the case. It's already the case. I see us quite dynamic and proactive in his approach with these things. And it's just been an amazing journey and it's given Namibia cricket and our development programmes a pathway, everything, just a huge injection to say let's keep on growing. Now we've got a window of opportunity here to grow this game to the next level.