Namibia can look forward to a host of international sporting events in 2026, with the u19 Cricket World Cup kicking off the action next week.
Besides that Namibia will also compete in the 13th Commonwealth Games to be held in Glasgow, Scotland as well as the Olympic Youth Games that will be held in Africa for the first time.
Namibia will make history when it hosts the u19 Cricket World Cup for the first time, with the tournament getting underway next Thursday, 15 January.
Namibia will co-host the event with Zimbabwe, with each country hosting eight teams in two groups of four each. The countries competing in Namibia are Australia, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Japan in Group C, with all their matches taking place at the FNB Namibia Cricket Ground; as well as Group D, consisting of South Africa, West Indies, Afghanistan and Tanzania, who will compete at the High Performance Oval, adjacent to the FNB Namibia Cricket Ground.
Namibia will also host some of the Super 6 matches after the group stages, although all the knockout matches will be held in Zimbabwe.
Besides that, Namibian cricket will have a busy year with at least 20 international matches lined up for both the senior men and women’s teams.
The women kick off their campaign with the Women’s T20 World Cup Global Qualifier which starts in Nepal on 18 January. A total of 10 nations will be in action with the top four qualifying for the Women’s T20 World Cup in England in June.
The 23rd Commonwealth Games will be held in Glasgow, Scotland from 23 July to 2 August, with Namibia amongst more than 70 nations and 3 000 athletes that will be in action.
Namibia’s final teams and codes still have to be announced, but Namibia can be expected to send teams in codes like athletics, cycling, swimming, bowls, boxing, gymnastics and netball.
The Olympic Youth Games will be held in Africa for the first time with the Senegalese caopital Dakar to host the fourth edition from 31 October to 13 November.
The qualifying window for most of the codes is still open, but Namibia will be hoping to compete in sporting codes like swimming, cycling, beach volleyball, triathlon, boxing, athletics, wrestling, table tennis and archery.
The eyes of the sporting world, however, will be fixed on the Americas when the Fifa World Cup will be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico from 11 June till 19 July.
A record 48 teams will be in action as well as at least nine from Africa (it could be 10, depending on the final inter-continental qualifier in March), but Namibia’s Brave Warriors will not be there after failing to qualify last year.
The Brave Warriors also missed out on the 2025 Afcon finals currently underway in Morocco, but they should be in action soon again, with the qualifiers for the 2027 Afcon finals due to start at the end of March.
Alex Miller, who won a bronze medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games should once again be one of Namibia’s top medal contenders in Glasgow. File photo
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