ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2021

November 8, 2021

Ruben Trumpelmann

Dubai International Stadium

Namibia

Post Match Media Conference

Q. Playing on this big stage against the big boys. Tell us about your experience. How has this journey been?

RUBEN TRUMPELMANN: It's been a phenomenal journey. I think learned plenty in this World Cup for next year's Australia one. We're very excited. I think for us it's a place we felt we belonged.

I don't think this is the last time we'll be here, and as a team, we'll come back stronger. Hope we get a few more ups before we come back.

It's been really awesome. I really, really loved it, and the team really enjoyed the experience.

Q. Congratulations on a great journey in this T20 World Cup. You guys have played some good cricket. My question is what do you think the Namibian cricketers should do to take the next step going forward after you guys have learned a lot from this tournament?

RUBEN TRUMPELMANN: I think we've got massive exposure now playing against the best, seeing where we are and measuring ourselves against the very best. I think for us going forward, I think we need to sharpen up our basic skills. We know what the standard is and where we want to go, so for us it's a good benchmark to go to. As I said, I hope we can get stronger as we go on.

Q. Personally, what do you take back home after the last four to five weeks?

RUBEN TRUMPELMANN: Personally, I think resilience is a massive thing. I think it's our first big bubble, 45 days for us as a team, and I think we became much stronger as people and as a team, growing closer to each other. Hopefully, we can in the future learn out of this and take it on to the field and win some matches.

Q. Playing at this level, is facing a genuine fast bowler is difficult or a genuine crafty spinner is difficult?

RUBEN TRUMPELMANN: I think both have their aspects to be honest. 140-plus is something we got exposed in this tournament, and the first game against Sri Lanka, we struggled a bit. But after that we adapted well, and we kept fighting.

Spin, it's an interesting ball game always with T20 cricket, finding a balance between scoring boundaries and staying at the crease. So for us, again, a lovely learning curve for us going forward. We can, I think, express our brand of cricket going forward.

We've got a nice tri-series coming up as well. Taking this experience playing against the best in the world, we'll hopefully implement that with our future progress.

Q. What do you think is your best moment from this tournament?

RUBEN TRUMPELMANN: I think that's a quite obvious one. I think the first over Scotland is special. I think it's something I'll remember forever. I'll always have the trophy in my room, and it's something I'll tell my grandchildren when I'm 80 years old. I'll tell them about the one over. Yeah, it's awesome.

Q. Obviously, your team has won a lot of respect from all the competitors that you've played against over the past few weeks. I just want to understand back of house what message would you have for people in Namibia and also people at Cricket Namibia to say thank you for the support you will have received from them?

RUBEN TRUMPELMANN: First of all, I would like to say thank you. We had a massive fan base at home. We were playing for them, inspiring young kids to take us forward in the next generation.

There's people that have never watched cricket, and now all of a sudden we've won three games in a row, and they're all excited. So that's awesome. That's all we want to create. Cricket is still a growing sport in Namibia, and this coverage we got and people showing support is massive for us.

Hopefully, we can inspire the next future stars in Namibia home grown, and they will be absolutely phenomenal, and we'll come back even stronger. So it's great.

Q. Ruben, when the World Cup started, did you ever think of qualifying to the Super 12 stage when you were competing against Ireland and Netherlands in group A?

RUBEN TRUMPELMANN: If I understand the question correctly, you want to know if I wanted to qualify in the group stages.

Q. I just wanted to know that, when the T20 World Cup started, did you ever think of qualifying to the Super 12 stage by defeating Ireland and Netherlands in the group?

RUBEN TRUMPELMANN: That was always the plan. We didn't come here to play second fiddle. We wanted to express ourselves. We had this one opportunity, and we wanted to use it to the best of our abilities, show the world what we're made of as Namibians.

Yeah, I think we did that. We always knew we were going to come hard at all teams. Luckily for us, it came off, the hard work paid off. We did the work through the lockdown, COVID, with the extra backyard training. At the end of the day, that came through for us. I think just gave us the mental strength to push through it all all the time.

Q. You must have learned a lot watching the likes of KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma when you were bowling. Can you just elaborate your learning, what did you learn as a cricketer when you played India today?

RUBEN TRUMPELMANN: KL and Rohit are fantastic players. I think they just showed their class going forward. For us as a bowling unit, we need to get smarter and execute our skills better.

For me personally, it showed me how I'm able to compete at the top, and for me to go further, I need to better my skills with the execution of my deliveries. With that, the possibilities are endless.

Q. First of all, congratulations. Namibia has also qualified for the next World Cup. So I just want to ask one question. How does the pressure that will be increasing from the Namibian side that they don't have to qualify this year? How will the cricket be going on in the Namibia camp now?

RUBEN TRUMPELMANN: Please repeat that. I didn't properly understand.

Q. Namibia has now qualified for the World Cup. How will the mindset of players be for the next World Cup that they don't have to qualify now at the qualifying stage?

RUBEN TRUMPELMANN: I think qualifying for the World Cup, this is massive for us. It's cutthroat always, and it's difficult conditions. Always I stress for us it just allows us to have more prep for the World Cup, be better prepared to make the uptick we want to achieve. This team isn't done. We're ready for the next fight.

Yeah, so that does take a bit of pressure off us, but it also puts pressure on us to do it again. We've obviously performed. We can't just sit back on our laurels. We need to keep improving, and we need to keep competing.

Q. How important was David Wiese and his experience for Namibian cricket and this World Cup?

RUBEN TRUMPELMANN: David is a fantastic player. He's got plenty of experience around the world, and it showed in our more difficult matches, especially against the Netherlands when he came through with that 66. That's experience you can't buy.

For a team that hasn't got plenty of international experience, he just gave us a few ideas, kept us cool, and for us, a younger bowling unit, he added some valuable insight, especially on that side. Learned a few stuff before the tournament. Yeah, he's really a great asset to have. He's really an awesome guy to have around us.

Q. Just want to ask that the big positives for your team. Want to know team-wise you guys did really well, was there any individual goals for you? Any number or any specific player?

RUBEN TRUMPELMANN: As I said in the previous interview, I would celebrate any wicket I get in this stage. It's my first major tournament on the big stage. For me, I thought it went really well.

A few didn't go our way today. I would have loved to have Rohit. He's a phenomenal player. I think it's anyone's dream to have a big Indian out.

At the end of the day, it's a team sport, and we need to step forward and win matches. So whatever I can do in my capacity to do that, if it is by bowling dots or hitting a six or taking wickets, it doesn't matter, I want to do that for the team and take it forward for us.