Plenty will be at stake when some of the best players from the Associate and Affiliate world go head to head in their quest for the top prize in the ICC World Cricket League Division 1 which gets under way in the Netherlands from Thursday 1 July.
Captains with the World Cricket League Division 1 Shield. (Photo courtesy of ICC)
Ireland launches its title defence at VOC in Rotterdam when it takes on former champion Kenya while last year’s losing finalist Canada faces high-flying Afghanistan at VCC in Voorburg and host Netherlands meets Scotland at VRA in Amstelveen.
All 18 matches in the tournament will have ODI status and will be played at ICC-accredited venues.
The match between the Netherlands and Scotland, like all the other tournament matches at VRA, will be streamed live on the event website www.iccevents.yahoo.com and ESPN STAR Sports website www.espnstar.com. The internet broadcast will include live commentary and replays, including captains’ interviews at the toss, and flash and post-match interviews.
There is plenty of firepower within the ranks of the six sides to make this event a mouth-watering and hard-fought contest.
In particular, there is a wealth of young talent on show with the likes of Andrew Balbirnie, George Dockrell, Paul Stirling, Craig Young, James Hall (all Ireland), Parth Desai, Hiral Patel and Nitish Kumar (all Canada) to show that they are capable of performing in pressure-cooker situations. These immensely talented youngsters played in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2010 in New Zealand earlier this year and impressed the selectors with their approach and prowess.
In addition to this, the tournament will provide these teenagers a lifetime opportunity to stake a claim in the squads for ICC’s flagship event, the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 which takes place in the subcontinent from 19 February to 2 April.
Ireland captain Trent Johnston, who had a heart-breaking inaugural tournament in Nairobi in 2007 when his side finished fifth after losing four matches by tiny margins, agreed the tournament was a stepping stone for some of the younger generation cricketers.
“I think Phil Simmons and the selectors are pretty happy with the side we have here. I think it is a good opportunity for the players to put themselves forward for place in next year’s ICC Cricket World Cup squad,” said the 36-year-old all-rounder.
“We have probably got five or six of the regulars here and rest of the guys are trying to put themselves up for further selection. We are in sort of a rebuilding stage, I suppose, before the tournament in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
“We have a couple of guys who will be making their debuts, hopefully at some stage during the tournament. Craig Young, Andrew Bilbirnie, George Dockwell and Paul Stirling played in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup in New Zealand earlier this year. They are now in the senior squad and it is a fantastic achievement for Irish cricket to see these guys developing and making into the senior ranks,” he said.
Johnston said his side was committed to retain its status as the top Associate side and keep challenging the Full Members.
“I just want to keep Ireland at top of the Associate tree and keep knocking at the door of the big boys above us. We were close to beating Australia a couple of weeks ago and if we can take that sort of commitment and ability on the field and put three disciplines together, we have got a very good chance of lifting the trophy again,” he added.
Canada captain Ashish Bagai, whose side finished second to Ireland in South Africa last year, said his team was bubbling with confidence.
“The 2009 tournament was very important for us as the pressure was obviously higher,” said Bagai. “We did well and what we can take away from that tournament is the confidence which we can use in this tournament.
“All the six teams are evenly matched so it is going to be a tough tournament but we believe we have enough gas in our tanks to finish at the top.”
Bagai said the tournament was important to access where his side stood. “This is a very important tournament for us. It’s a milestone and a good checkpoint which we can use to see where we stand and what we need to do in future. It gives us a good time to try out a few youngsters and identify our strengths and weaknesses seven month away from the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011,” he added.
The Netherlands captain Peter Borren reiterated that his side was only looking for a win.
“It is a home tournament and obviously, at the back of our minds is the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 but at this stage the most important thing is to win the tournament,” said Borren.
“We have to win games of cricket and let’s try to put 100 overs of quality cricket together. It’s always a challenge and it will be the same for all the teams here. I have no doubt that at times during this tournament we’ll see some fantastic innings played by the Netherlands top six or seven batsmen. I also have no doubts that at times our bowling will be sharp.
“It’s very often in cricket that you bat very well but let yourself down a little bit with bowling or fielding or the other way round. It has been a challenge for all the Associate sides to put it together for the whole match and our challenge in this tournament will be to be competitive and consistent match after match.”
On an individual note, there are a few landmarks which are likely to be achieved during the course of the tournament.
Kenya’s James Kamande and Alex Obanda, Bas Zuiderent of the Netherlands, Sunil Dhaniram of Canada and Ireland’s Kevin O’Brien will be aiming to complete 1,000 ODI runs.
Kamande is just 90 runs short of the four figures and Obanda sits on 890 runs as only 19 Kenya batsmen to date have scored 1,000 or more ODI runs. Zuiderent has scored 881 ODI runs and so needs another 119 runs to become the second batsman after Ryan ten Doeschate to complete 1,000 runs. O’Brien needs another 57 runs to become the second Ireland batsman after William Porterfield to reach 1,000 ODI runs and 41-year-old Dhaniram, who is already his country’s most successful bowler with 41 wickets, requires 115 runs to become the second Canadian batsman after Bagai to reach the milestone.
Meanwhile, Neil McCallum is just two matches short of becoming the most ODI capped player for Scotland. He has played 35 ODIs but when he takes the field for his second match in the tournament, he’ll leapfrog left-handed opener Gavin Hamilton who retired after 36 ODI appearances for his country.
The Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen, Alex Obanda of Kenya and Rizwan Cheena are the highest-ranked batsmen in joint-60th position. Others in the top 100 eyeing an upward movement include Ashish Bagai (66th), Kevin O’Brien (68th), Sunil Dhaniram (84th), Collins Obuya (97th) and Thomas Odoyo (98th).
In the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI bowlers, Hiren Varaiya is in 36th spot, followed by Trent Johnston (50th), Thomos Odoyo (51st), Sunil Dhaniram (67th), Umar Bhatti (71st) and Nehemiah Odhiambo (98th).
Over the next 10 days, the six top sides will be locked in some high-octane cricket in a tournament which will be played on a round-robin format with the top two sides progressing to 10 July final.
There are reserve days for the first four round matches on which an incomplete match shall continue from the scheduled day.
However, the reserve day for the fifth round (9 July) matches will only be utilised if any of the scheduled matches are incomplete on the scheduled day. In that case, the 10 July play-off matches will not take place and the final position will be decided as per the table at the end of round five.
Thursday’s fixtures:
The Netherlands v Scotland, VRA, Amstelveen
Canada v Afghanistan, VCC Voorburg
Ireland v Kenya, VOC Rotterdam