ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2022

October 15, 2022

Stephan Baard

Kardinia Park

Namibia

Pre Match Media Conference

Q. I'm interested to know how a bunch of fellas from Africa where it's pretty warm, it's a bit cold out there, isn't it?

STEPHAN BAARD: Yes, a lot more chilly than we thought initially. As cricketers I don't think we mind too much. We can get tired out in the heat pretty quickly.

But yeah, we had to embrace it. It's been difficult most days obviously but it's impacted everybody. There's nothing you can do about it. You've got to do what you can, and I feel like what we can, yeah, so we're happy.

Q. I suppose Sri Lanka are feeling the same thing?

STEPHAN BAARD: Yeah, like I said, it's impacted everybody. There's not really anything you can do. I know they also had some of their games impacted leading up to the game tomorrow. You do what you can, and that's about it. You can't control the weather.

Q. And the preparations themselves, are you in a good place do you think ahead of tomorrow's game?

STEPHAN BAARD: Yeah, I think so. I look at the team last year compared to the first World Cup we played in and there was like a nervousness around it and of course there is again but there is more of a sense of calm. We know it's going to be tough. Of course it's going to be tough. All the games are tough in a tournament like this. But there's a little bit more of a sense of calmness. We know what to expect. We know what's on the line. For us that's a good thing. That's a good feeling to have, and we've just got to embrace it.

Q. What do you make of your opponents?

STEPHAN BAARD: It's a good team. They just came off an Asia Cup win, and playing very good cricket. Yet again, opening the World Cup against someone like that is going to be hard. We know they're going to come with a big fight, they're going to come with a big hard approach, but we're up for it. We've done a lot of training and a lot of growing in the last 12 months, and hopefully our preparations have taken us to a point where we can compete and we can beat them tomorrow.

Q. There's a perception that T20 is especially suited -- I'm not trying to make any disrespect to the smaller cricket teams in the world, that T20 cricket is a good vehicle for them.

STEPHAN BAARD: In what sense?

Q. That it's possible for smaller teams to win T20 games than it is ODIs.

STEPHAN BAARD: Yeah, I think so. I think it would make sense. I think the pathway for smaller teams have become much bigger, whereas for longer formats it's still quite hard to reach the top tournaments and those type of things. Of course it is. I think teams are focused much more on T20 cricket. In franchise level, even T10 cricket in stages.

Definitely so, and I think that's also, they've found a formula to win big games, and we've seen it over the last 20 years or so with smaller teams beating bigger sides, so it's definitely easier.