T20 World Cup 2022: Albie Morkel - Former South Africa all-rounder, now Namibia assistant coach, instrumental in the team's success

Namibia started their journey to qualify for Super 12 with a bang as they defeated Asia Cup Champions Sri Lanka by a massive margin of 55 runs. Their bowlers were perfect in hitting the correct lengths and line to trouble Sri Lankan batters. Now, if they win even one of the two remaining two matches, they are in solid contention for qualification for Super 12. 

Namibia's rise in international cricket has been phenomenal, and credit for their resurgence has to be given to their head coach Pierre de Bruyn and assistant coach Albie Morkel. 

Albie Morkel's contribution

Albie Morkel was one of the most efficient white-ball all-rounders for his team, whether at the international or domestic level. He and Pierre de Bruyn have brought cricketing culture back to Namibia. 

Albie Morkel's cricketing career was cut short due to Covid, but the player took a leap of faith to join as a coach soon after retiring from competitive cricket. Though he played only 50 T20Is, he had vast experience in domestic cricket. In 319 T20 matches, he had 4248 runs and 268 wickets. 

"My [playing] career got cut shot by COVID. I had to look for [other] opportunities early. The Namibia opportunity came along at the very same time which was an easy decision to make at that stage as I would still be involved with cricket even though it was a different role and in different capacity but it's something that I wanted to do late in my career," said Albie Morkel. 

Albie Morkel has played a massive role in Namibia players' cricketing journey by convincing South African-born players like Ruben Trumpelmann to take the plunge and represent Namibia. David Wiese, who earlier used to represent Proteas, also represents Namibia. 

Apart from him, his brother, former South African bowler Morne Morkel is also the bowling consultant for the Namibian cricket team. After retiring, he did some commentary stints but then joined the Namibia team with better potential. 

Albie Morkel even praised the bowling department of Namibia. The attack is different from the rest as they have four left-arm pacers, Ruben Trumpelmann, Jan Frylinck, JJ Smit and Tangeni Lungameni, along with left-arm spinner Bernard Scholtz. 

He said, "To have one left-arm pacer is a luxury, we've got four. It does become one-dimensional. If we can play four left-arm seamers, at least we've got the luxury to do it." 

Namibia surprised everyone in the previous edition of the T20 World Cup by qualifying for Super 12 and is progressing on similar grounds this time. After defeating Sri Lanka, they have the Netherlands as their next assignment on October 18, who are also coming after defeating the UAE in their first fixture.