Merwe Gerhard Erasmus (born 11 April 1995) is a Namibian

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er, and the current captain of the

Namibia cricket team The Namibia men's national cricket team (nicknamed the Eagles) is the men's cricket team representing the Republic of Namibia in international cricket. It is organised by Cricket Namibia, which became an associate member of the Internatio ...

Career

Erasmus first played at senior level for Namibia in February 2011, aged 15, against a touring

Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...

(MCC) side. He made his international and first-class debut against

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

in September 2011 in the 2011–2013 ICC Intercontinental Cup, and at the age of 16, became the youngest player in the team's history. He was a member of Namibia's squad for the

2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier The 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier was played in early 2012 as a part of the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier series. This edition of the qualifier for the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 was an expanded version comprising ten qualifiers from regional Tw ...

. Erasmus was included in the Namibia under-19s squad for the

2012 Under-19 Cricket World Cup The 2012 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup was a one-day cricket competition for sixteen international U-19 cricketing teams which was held in August 2012. It was the ninth edition of the Under-19 Cricket World Cup. The tournament was held in Aust ...

in Australia. He captained the team at the

2014 Under-19 Cricket World Cup The 2014 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup was a one-day cricket competition for sixteen international U-19 cricketing teams which was played in the United Arab Emirates. It was the tenth edition of the Under-19 Cricket World Cup. Sixteen nations co ...

in the United Arab Emirates. Erasmus played in Namibia's squad for the

2018 ICC World Cricket League Division Two 2018 ICC World Cricket League Division Two was a cricket tournament that took place in February 2018 in Namibia. The United Arab Emirates won the tournament, after beating Nepal by 7 runs in the final. Canada and Namibia finished third and fourth ...

tournament. In August 2018, he was named in Namibia's squad for the

2018 Africa T20 Cup The 2018 Africa T20 Cup was the fourth and final edition of the Africa T20 Cup, a Twenty20 cricket tournament. It was held in South Africa in September 2018, as a curtain-raiser to the 2018–19 South African domestic season. Provincial side Kw ...

. In March 2019, Erasmus was named as the captain of Namibia's squad for the

2019 ICC World Cricket League Division Two The 2019 ICC World Cricket League Division Two was an international cricket tournament that took place in April 2019 in Namibia. It was contested by six teams; Canada national cricket team, Canada, Hong Kong national cricket team, Hong Kong, Om ...

tournament. Namibia finished in the top four places in the tournament, therefore gaining

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

(ODI) status. Erasmus made his ODI debut for Namibia on 27 April 2019, against

Oman Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...

, in the tournament's final. In May 2019, he was named as the captain of Namibia's squad for the Regional Finals of the 2018–19 ICC T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier tournament in Uganda. He made his

Twenty20 International Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of Twenty20 cricket, in which each team plays a single innings with a maximum of twenty overs. The matches are played between international teams recognized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). ...

(T20I) debut for Namibia against

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

on 20 May 2019. In June 2019, Erasmus was one of twenty-five cricketers to be named in

Cricket Namibia The Namibia Cricket Board, known commercially as Cricket Namibia, is the official governing body of the sport of cricket in Namibia. Its current headquarters is in Windhoek, which is the capital and largest city of Namibia. Cricket Namibia is N ...

's Elite Men's Squad ahead of the 2019–20 international season. In September 2019, he was named as the captain of Namibia's squad for the

2019 ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier The 2019 ICC Men's T20 World Cup Qualifier was a cricket tournament held during October and November 2019 in the United Arab Emirates to determine the teams that would qualify for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup tournament. The six teams finis ...

tournament in the United Arab Emirates. He was the leading run-scorer for Namibia in the tournament, with 268 runs in nine matches. Following the conclusion of the final, he was named as the player of the tournament. In September 2021, Erasmus was named as the captain of Namibia's squad for the

2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup The 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup was the seventh edition of the Men's T20 World Cup, formerly known as the ICC World Twenty20, a Twenty20 cricket tournament that took place from 17 October to 14 November 2021. The tournament was hosted by Unit ...

, with the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the global Sports governing body, governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from Australia, England, and South Africa. In 1965, the body wa ...

(ICC) later naming him as the key player in Namibia's team. In a warm-up match against Scotland before the tournament, he broke a finger while fielding. However, he decided to continue playing in the tournament and captain his team in spite of the injury. In March 2022, in the second match of the 2022 United Arab Emirates Tri-Nation Series, Erasmus scored his first century in ODI cricket, with 121

not out In cricket, a batsman is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batsman is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at ...

. The following month, in the second match against Uganda, Erasmus also scored his first century in T20I cricket, with an unbeaten 100 against

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

. In January 2023, Erasmus won the

's Associate Cricketer of the Year award. Erasmus scored 956 ODI runs at an average of 56.23 and took a dozen wickets in 2022, and scored a century in both ODI and T20I formats. In May 2024, he was named the captain in Namibia’s squad for the

2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup The 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup was the ninth edition of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, co-hosted by Cricket West Indies and USA Cricket from 1 to 29 June 2024. It was the first major ICC tournament to include matches played in the United ...

tournament.

Personal life

As of 2018, Erasmus was a fourth-year law student at the

University of Stellenbosch Stellenbosch University (SU) (, ) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant university in Sub-Sahara ...

in South Africa. His father Francois runs a family law firm in

Windhoek Windhoek (; ; ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek, which ...

and is a former president of

and associate director of the

(ICC).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Erasmus, Gerhard 1995 births Living people Cricketers from Windhoek Namibian cricketers Namibia One Day International cricketers Namibia Twenty20 International cricketers 21st-century Namibian sportsmen