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Cricket outsiders seek to prove their worth at World Cup

LONDON: Canadian cricket anyone? How about Dutch? Or even Irish. Known better for ice-hockey, soccer and Gaelic sports, Canada, the Netherlands and Ireland are three of the 16 teams in cricket’s World Cup, starting in the Caribbean on March 13.

Along with Scotland and Bermuda, they’re not expected to get far, and their realistic expectation is to win a match against a fellow outsider. And try to avoid setting an unwanted statistical record. What chance does Scotland and the Netherlands have against South Africa and defending champion Australia? Former West Indies great Michael Holding fears one-sided matches. “What is gained by a team playing in the World Cup and getting absolutely hammered?” Holding said. “In my opinion, it’s counterproductive.”

Along with Kenya, the six are associate members because they don’t play Test cricket. The teams qualified for the World Cup by finishing in the top six at the second tier, 12-nation ICC Trophy. Holding would rather see non-Test playing countries have their own competition, with the winner advancing to the World Cup. That didn’t go down well in Bermuda, which, like Ireland, is making its World Cup debut.

“I don’t think he’s looking at the big picture,” former captain Lionel Cann said. “There are 96 countries that are associates and members. The dream of playing in the World Cup is an incentive for them.” Former India captain Sourav Ganguly agrees. “It is the duty of stronger teams to support these teams to do better,” Ganguly said. “If you do not play against these teams, they will not get exposure.”

There were 14 teams in 2003 edition, and 12 in 1999. Those tournaments started with two pools this year’s event has four groups of four, and only the first and second place advancing to the next round. It’s taken a lot of scouting for these countries to get this far. Of the associate member teams, the only squad that’s entirely born in the country it represents is Bermuda, which plays India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the group stage.

The Kenya squad has two India-born players, with Ireland featuring three Australians and a South African. The Netherlands squad has two players each from Pakistan and New Zealand and four from South Africa. But it’s the Canadians that are the most multicultural. There’s two each from India, Pakistan, Guyana and Barbados, and one each from Uganda, New Zealand, Pakistan, St. Kitts and Jamaica. Not surprisingly, the Canadian-born players learnt their craft elsewhere captain John Davison played state cricket in Australia and batsman Ian Billcliff grew up in New Zealand.

Scotland hasn’t won any of its five World Cup matches and has the record for the most extras in the tournament’s history 59 against Pakistan in 1999. That hasn’t dampened the expectation of its Australian coach, Peter Drinnen. “In the one day game, anything can happen and if we get it together, we are going to be very dangerous even against Australia,” Drinnen said. “We aren’t going to the Caribbean to play exhibition cricket.” At least the Netherlands has won one of its 11 World Cup matches, against Namibia in 2003.

Canada registered the lowest team score in the competition when it was all out for 36 against Sri Lanka in 2003. No Canadian player made double figures and the 140-ball game is the shortest completed match in World Cup history. However Canada, competing in its third World Cup, has one record to be proud of John Davison set the tournament’s fastest century in 67 balls against the West Indies in 2003. Canada is grouped with England, New Zealand and Kenya.

Kenya reached the semi-finals in 2003, which included a 53-run win over Sri Lanka. Its first victory in a one-day match was a 73-run upset over the West Indies in the 1996 tournament. And that’s despite no Kenyan ever scoring a century in the history of the competition. Zimbabwe is also considered one of the weaker teams at the tournament after key players refused to work with the current management. That’s led to a rapid decline in Zimbabwean cricket over the past few years and the suspension of Test match status.

Tatenda Taibu, Tinashe Panyangara and brothers Andy and Grant Flower refused callups to the World Cup squad and a youthful, inexperienced squad travels to the Caribbean. “Sometimes you can use that to your advantage _ West Indies and Pakistan will be under pressure to play well against us, while our guys can go out and play with a bit of flair and hopefully produce the goods,” Zimbabwe assistant coach Steven Mangongo said. Zimbabwe reached the second round of the World Cup in 2003, but will struggle to repeat that performance this time, with the West Indies, Pakistan and Ireland in its group. ap

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