Namibia’s Oscar Nauhaus takes charge of UAE women’s cricket team

KUUMAR SHYAM (ABU DHABI)

Experienced Namibian coach Oscar Nauhaus has been appointed head coach of the UAE Women’s national team and will take up the role from next month.

The 38-year-old brings more than a decade of coaching experience spanning grassroots, high-performance and international cricket. Most recently he served as High-Performance Manager at Cricket Namibia, where he focused on developing young talent and supporting players through the national pathways.

Nauhaus guided Namibia’s Under-19 men’s side to qualification for the 2024 ICC Under-19 World Cup and formed part of the support staff for the senior men’s team at the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.

With a background in sport science, he has built a reputation for creating positive team environments and helping players develop both on and off the field.

Following Raza’s departure, Sudha Venkatraman took over as interim head coach and led the team at the Women’s Asia Cup held in Dubai last September.

Nauhaus expressed his delight at taking charge of the "incredibly talented team" which has "produced some fantastic performances in recent times. UAE cricket is surely on the rise, exemplified by the team’s fine performances in the Women’s Asia Cup. My aim will be to build further on the good work done by my predecessor and take the team to the next level."

He also has prior experience of cricket in the Emirates, having previously worked at the Zayed Cricket Academy in Abu Dhabi and with Team Abu Dhabi in the Abu Dhabi T10 tournament. Nauhaus was chosen after a thorough recruitment process in which the Emirates Cricket Board received more than 100 applications from around the world. He is due to travel to Dubai next week to begin his stint.

Nauhaus succeeds Ahmed Raza, the former UAE spinner and captain who stepped down as head coach in June after overseeing the team’s qualification for the 2026 Women’s Asia Cup. Raza, who had a 21-year association with UAE cricket, had guided the side to significant progress, including the achievement of one-day international status and the team winning the ICC Associate Team of the Year recently at the end of the 2025-26 season.