
During the eight-day tournament that commences on 17 January, Canada, Kenya, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands and Uganda will compete for the opportunity to progress to ICC’s four-day Intercontinental Cup 2015-17 and the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Championship.
Netherlands’ Peter Borren is expecting a competitive tournament: “All the participating teams are capable of playing an exciting brand of cricket to a high standard. We are aware of the competitive nature of the tournament and are looking forward to the challenge. I expect the Netherlands team to perform well and it is our target to win the tournament.”
Its squad is a mixture of experience and raw talent explains Borren: “Look out for Stephan Myburgh; he is an enforcer at the top of the innings and Mudassar Bukhari will once again lead the bowling attack. On his day he is clearly one of associate cricket’s top performers and if he has a consistent tournament we will be very hard to beat.”
Uganda skipper, Frank Nsubuga is excited for the tournament to begin: "The team are training hard and the camp is great experience ahead of the tournament. Playing against Zimbabwe in Kampala was good preparation.”
Uganda qualified for WCL Div. 2 after coming second in the WCL Div. 3, held in Malaysia in October 2014, and the squad boasts all-rounder Roger Mukasa who was the Player of the Tournament in that event.
Kenya captain Rakep Patel is confident for his team ahead of the tournament: “I think we fancy ourselves doing well in the tournament. Although we didn’t get the results in our favour against Pakistan A, I think the tour has definitely helped the boys as they played against opposition of higher standard.”
The African side is seeking to regain its ranking amongst the top Associates by using the tournament as a way back in to the ICC Intercontinental Cup and the Pepsi World Cricket League Championship.
Patel is keen to help Kenya climb the international ladder, but he says the side is taking one tournament at a time: “We are taking one event at a time we don’t want to look to far ahead and lose focus of the present. If we start winning games again it will have a positive effect on the team and that in turn would help us climb the ladder slowly but surely.”
The opening day of the tournament will see Namibia take on Kenya at Wanderers, Netherlands lock horns with Canada at United, and Uganda face Nepal at Wanderers Affies.
The tournament schedule is:
17 Jan – Namibia v Kenya (Wanderers), Netherlands v Canada (United), Uganda v Nepal (Wanderers Affies)
18 Jan – Namibia v Uganda (Wanderers), Nepal v Netherlands (United), Kenya v Canada (Wanderers Affies)
19 Jan – Rest/reserve day
20 Jan – Nepal v Canada (Wanderers), Kenya v Uganda (United), Namibia v Netherlands (Wanderers Affies)
21 Jan – Kenya v Netherlands (Wanderers), Namibia v Nepal (United), Canada v Uganda (Wanderers Affies)
22 Jan – Rest/reserve day
23 Jan – Netherlands v Uganda (Wanderers), Namibia v Canada (United), Nepal v Kenya (Wanderers Affies)
24 Jan – Final (Wanderers), 3rd v 4th play-off (United), 5th v 6th play-off (Wanderers Affies)
All matches are scheduled to start at 0930 local time
Squads
Canada – Amarbir Hansra (captain), Rizwan Cheema, Parth Desai, Navneet Dhaliwal, Satsimranjit Dhindsa, Nikhil Dutta, Ruvindu Gunasekera, Nitish Kumar, Usman Limbada, Umer Nawaz, Cecil Pervez, Durand Soraine, Hamza Tariq, Srimantha Wijeyeratne
Kenya – Rakep Patel (captain), Elijah Asoyo, Alex Auma, Jadavji Bhimji, James Kamande, Irfan Karim, Lucas Ndandason, James Ngoche, Nehemiah Ngoche, Shem Ngoche, Collins Obuya, Nelson Odhiambo, Narendra Patel, Gurdeep Singh
Namibia – Nicolaas Scholtz (captain), Stephen Baard, Sarel Burger, Merwe Erasmus, Louis Klazinga, Bjorn Kotze, Jean – Pierre Kotze, Bernard Scholtz, Johannes Smit, Christiaan Snyman, Gerrie Snyman, Raymond Van Schoor, Craig Williams, Helao Ya France
Nepal – Paras Khadka (captain), Binod Bhandari, Amrit Bhattarai, Naresh Bahadur Budhaayer, Shakti Prasad Gauchan, Sompal Kami, Bhuban Karki, Karan KC, Subash Khakurel, Gyanendra Malla, Sagar Pun, Basant Regmi, MD Arif Sheikh, Sharad Vesawkar
Netherlands – Peter Borren (captain), Rahil Ahmed, Wesley Barresi, Jeroen Brand, Mudassar Bukhari, Ben Cooper, Vivian Kingma, Ahsan Malik, Stephan Myburgh, Michael Rippon, Pieter Seelaar, Eric Szwarczynski, Paul van Meekeren, Matthijs van Schelven
Uganda – Frank Nsubuga (captain), Davis Karashani, Hamu Kayondo, Arthur Kyobe, Brian Masaba, Deusdedit Muhumuza, Roger Mukasa, Phillemon Mukobe, Abram Mutyagaba, Patrick Ochan, Danniel Ruyange, Jonathan Sebanja, Laurence Sematimba, Henry Ssenyondo
Match officials
ICC Regional Referee Dev Govindjee will be the referee for the tournament.
The umpires are:
· Ian Ramage – Mentor Umpire (Scotland)
· Tim Robinson - Mentor Umpire (United Kingdom)
· Shaun George - Mentor Umpire (South Africa)
· Mark Hawthorne (Ireland)
· Anil Chaudhary (India)
· David Odhiambo (Kenya)
· Buddhi Pradhan (Nepal)