Helao Nafidi Ya France (born 23 April 1990) is a Namibian

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er. Known by his nickname Pikky, Ya France is a right-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, the ...

who bowls right-arm

slow In everyday use and in kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude (mathematics), magnitude of the change of its Position (vector), position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per ...

. He was born 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 in 20 ...

Khomas Region Khomas is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia. Its name refers to the Khomas Highland, a high plateau landscape that dominates this administrative unit. Khomas is centered on the capital city Windhoek and provides for this reason superior trans ...

Career

2008-2011: Debut

Having played for the Namibia Under-19 cricket team, whom he represented in the 2008 Under-19s Cricket World Cup, Ya France made his first-class debut for the senior team in March 2011. He opened the batting in the 2010/11

CSA Provincial Three-Day Competition The CSA Provincial Competitions are three South African domestic cricket competitions run by Cricket South Africa (CSA). Three-day ( first-class) and one-day ( List A) competitions were introduced for the 2004–05 season, while a Twenty20 competi ...

against

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

, scoring 15 and 10, and made his

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

the following day, and scored 13. Ya France quickly established himself as a regular member of the side. He played in both one day matches in the

tour of Ireland The Tour of Ireland (Irish: Turas na hÉireann, known from 1985 to 1992 as the Nissan Classic) was a bicycle stage race held in August, which ran for 35 editions over a 56-year period. Irish rider Seán Kelly recorded the most wins, four. Th ...

in July, and then took eight wickets at 12.25 in the

2011 ICC Africa Twenty20 Division One The 2011 ICC Africa Twenty20 Division One was an international Twenty20 cricket tournament that took place between 9–15 July 2011. It was the inaugural edition of the ICC Africa Twenty20 Championship's Division One. Uganda hosted the event, wi ...

in Uganda. In September 2011, Ya France made a marathon unbeaten half-century against Scotland to force a draw in Namibia's

ICC Intercontinental Cup The ICC Intercontinental Cup was a first-class cricket tournament organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) as part of its cricket development programme. It was designed to allow Associate Members of the ICC the chance to play first ...

match. Ya France faced 225 balls for his 63

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

2013: Racism controversy

In April 2013, Ya France scored 54 off 38 in the final of the Twenty20 Quadrangular to help Namibia to victory over Kenya. He was named

man of the match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

. In September, however, Ya France pulled out of the squad that travelled to Sharjah to play the United Arab Emirates in the

. Ya France stated that he had been "constantly subjected to unfair treatment by the selectors" in being overlooked for selection in previous matches. Carlos Kambaekwa, writing for the '' New Era'' newspaper, criticized the team's "lily white lineup" and suggested that the Namibian cricket authorities were excluding and discouraging "cricketers of colour". Ya France was back in the first-class team in October, but played only one match in the

ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier The ICC Men's T20 World Cup Qualifier (previously the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier) was a Twenty20 International tournament run under the auspices of the International Cricket Council (ICC). The tournament served as the final qualifying event for ...

in November.

2015-present: Return to form

In October 2015, Ya France returned to form with 83 against South Western Districts. This is his highest first-class score to date. In April 2016, Ya France top scored for Namibia in both innings against Afghanistan in the

. He made 46 and 40 as Namibia lost by an innings and 36 runs. Then in September he top-scored in Namibia's victory over

Western Province Western Province or West Province may refer to: *Western Province, Cameroon *Western Province, Rwanda *Western Province (Kenya) *Western Province (Papua New Guinea) *Western Province (Solomon Islands) *Western Province, Sri Lanka *Western Provinc ...

in the

2016 Africa T20 Cup The 2016 Africa T20 Cup was the second edition of the Africa T20 Cup, a Twenty20 cricket tournament that was held in South Africa from 2 September to 1 October 2016, as a curtain-raiser to the 2016–17 South African domestic season. Organised by ...

. Namibia lost both its remaining matches, but Ya France was his team's highest run-scorer in the tournament. In October 2018, he was named in Namibia's squad in the Southern sub region group for the 2018–19 ICC World Twenty20 Africa Qualifier tournament in Botswana. In March 2019, he was named in 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 between six teams; Canada, Hong Kong, Oman, Papua New Guinea, the United States and tournament hos ...

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

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

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

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of t ...

, in the tournament's final. In May 2019, he was named in Namibia's squad for the

Regional Finals In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

of the

2018–19 ICC T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier The 2018–19 ICC T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier was the tournament played as part of qualification process for the 2021 ICC T20 World Cup. Twelve regional qualifiers were held by the International Cricket Council (ICC), with 62 teamsZambia were ...

tournament in Uganda. The following month, he was one of twenty-five cricketers to be named in

Cricket Namibia The Namibia Cricket Board, known commercially as Cricket Namibia, is the official Sport governing body, governing body of the sport of cricket in Namibia. Its current headquarters is in Windhoek, Namibia. Cricket Namibia is Namibia's representa ...

's Elite Men's Squad ahead of the 2019–20 international season. He made his

Twenty20 International A Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of cricket, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The matches have top-class status and are the ...

(T20I) debut for Namibia against

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...

on 19 August 2019 during Botswana's tour of Namibia. In September 2019, he was named in 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 which teams would qualify for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup tournament. The six teams finishing ...

tournament in the United Arab Emirates. In September 2021, he was named in Namibia's squad for the

2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup The 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup was the seventh ICC Men's T20 World Cup tournament, with the matches played in the United Arab Emirates and Oman from 17 October to 14 November 2021. The West Indies were the defending champions, but were eventua ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ya France, Pikky 1990 births Living people Cricketers from Windhoek Namibian cricketers Namibia One Day International cricketers Namibia Twenty20 International cricketers