Afghanistan, Namibia clash at Gr Noida stadium

Greater Noida: Shaheed Vijay Singh Parthik Sports stadium will host the ICC Intercontinental Cup from Sunday. The tournament played between associate nations will open a chance for the winner to become an ICC test playing nation. Afghanistan and Namibia will play the final match in the tournament's third round from April 10-13 at the Greater Noida stadium.
The schedule for the Intercontinental Cup, with Afghanistan playing its home matches in Greater Noida, was announced by the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Friday. The winner of the 2015-17 Intercontinental Cup will play four five-day matches against the bottom-ranked Test nation in 2018 in another ICC Test Challenge. If the Intercontinental champion wins the Test Challenge, it will become the 11th test playing nation for four years.
Afghanistan - who have Pakistan batting legend Inzamam Ul Haq as their head coach with Indian veteran Manoj Parabhakar as bowling coach - is in the fifth spot in the cup with 21 points, while Namibia with 20 points is in the seventh place. Ireland (with 60 points) leads the table followed by Netherlands (46), Hong Kong (30) and Scotland (23).
"Both teams are upbeat about the field and we expect some thrilling cricketing action over the next few day," said Rajeev Tyagi, general manager (projects), GNIDA.
"The Namibian team on Friday practised for about four hours," said Tyagi, while the Afghanistan team practiced with UP state team.
Tyagi further said that between April 6 and 10, coaching camps for Afghanistan players have been organized by the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) under the supervision and guidance of ICC. Former Bangladesh Skipper and ICC development officer, Mohammad Aminul Islam and former Indian test player Venkatpathy Raju will be guiding the players.
After the match against Afghanistan, Namibia will head to Kathmandu, where they will play two 50-over ICC World Cricket League Championship matches against Nepal from April 16-18, the winners of which will progress to the ICC cricket world cup qualifier scheduled to be held in Bangladesh.