Former South African all-rounder David Wiese will feature for Namibia in the upcoming season of T20 World Cup which is going to held at UAE and Oman this year. David Wiese is eligible to play for Namibia as his father was born in that country.
Namibia’s coach Pierre de Bruyn in an interview said: “David’s dad was born here, so he’s eligible to play for Namibia. He’s playing in the T20 Blast in England, but will join us after that and is also available going forward after the World Cup, so I’m super excited about that.”
“His team, Sussex, are in the quarterfinals so we must see how far he gets there, but I hope he will be able to join for the Free State trip at least. With the experience of playing in various T20 leagues around the world, including the IPL, he will be hopeful of making an impact with his new international team,” he further added.
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David Wiese made his T20I debut for South Africa against Sri Lanka in 2013. Soon after making his international debut, he was dropped for the team and was sent back to domestic cricket. He made his ODI debut against New Zealand in 2015. He was also a part of the South African squad that reached semi finals of the 2016 T20 World Cup.
Wiese scored 194 runs and picked up 33 wickets for the Proteas in a total of six ODIs and twenty T20I matches. Wiese’s last game for South Africa was against Sri Lanka in the 2016 T20 World Cup at Feroz Shah Kotla.
Wiese is a T20 specialist having played for different franchises in IPL, BPL, PSL & CPL. David Wiese has also played for RCB in IPL and helped them to go through the playoffs.
On 2017 he ended his career for South Africa by signing a three-year Kolpak deal with Sussex. That deal made him ineligible to play for South Africa anymore, thereby marking an end to his international career.
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Kolpak deal in cricket states that the players belonging to the countries that have deal with the EU can participate in any cricket tournament in an EU country without being considered as an overseas player so after signing the Kolpak deal David Wiese is available to play for Namibia and Namibia government issued a statement by saying that Wiese father is born in Namibia so we are privileged to welcome great all-rounder. David Wiese signed the Kolpak deal because he used to get limited opportunities in South Africa and was often ignored by the national selectors.
Johan Muller, CEO of Cricket Namibia has stated that David Wiese has made himself available although the squad has not been released yet. ICC’s deadline for releasing the squad is September 10. Till Now, Wiese has not featured in any of Namibia’s matches. If the player makes it to the squad, it will be his first match in Namibia’s jersey and will make a comeback to international cricket after five years of absence.
Namibia and South Africa are the only two African countries who will feature in the ICC World Cup after Zimbabwe failed to qualify because their board was temporarily banned by ICC at that time. Namibia qualified for the tournament by defeating Oman in the playoffs of the qualifiers held in Dubai in October 2019. Since then, Namibia has only played three T20 matches against Uganda.
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