It’s a long, meandering road to the World Cup finals in 2027. It’s a tough slog for the associate nations who have to travel far and wide to get to the main dance floor to be staged in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. This year there is a great deal of expectation that Canada will finally rub shoulders with the big boys at the second-most watched sport behind the World Cup of soccer.
Canada qualified for the finals in 1979, 2003, 2007 and 2011 and hopes are high it could well make it five and a safari to Africa. Canada has already played 12 of the expected 36 matches and tops its group with eight victories. Canada has a well-balanced squad led by coach Khurram Chohan, a former Canada international player, who found himself in the hot seat after former coach Pubudu Dassanayake was unceremoniously booted out earlier this year despite leading the country to an exceptional showing in the World Twenty20 Cup finals. Cricket Canada gave no reasons for the dismissal and the former coach has sued the parent body since his contract stated his job would continue if the team qualified for the Twenty20 World Cup and reclaim its place in the One-day International (ODI) circuit after an absence of 10 years. It did both. Apparently, the parent body and Dassanayake had talks last week but both parties refused to disclose any details.
In the meantime, the 44-year-old Chohan has done an impressive job after being parachuted in after the Twenty20 tournament although he and the rest of the high-flying squad have not been offered contracts for the new cycle as yet. The squad was to have signed new contracts a month ago and it’s confusing that they are left dangling. Canada was once the toast of the associate countries but poor decisions by the parent body saw the team drop down the ladder. It is unfortunate that parent bodies sometimes forget it is the players who are the lifeline of the game, not some suits who assume they are.
Chohan, who played top-class cricket in Pakistan and England before emigrating to Canada, impressed the local selectors with his pace and rewarded with a spot on the 2009 World Cup squad.
“I am very happy with the squad that I have right now,” said Chohan. “It was a rough start as we travelled to the Netherlands straight after the Global T20 tournament and that meant we had no time to adapt to the 50-over game. But after returning home from Europe we had enough time to prepare on our strategy for visiting Nepal and Oman. And it paid dividends as it took us to the top of the table.”
Now comes the hard part. The next qualifying matches aren’t until March that’s when the squad travels to Namibia where it will two tough opponents in Namibia and possibly the Netherlands. Right now, Chohan is devising camps right here in Toronto where his squad will concentrate on improving the players’ fitness and fielding.
Chohan also has long-term goals as well. He plans to introduce up-and-coming players into the squad. “We have some talented players who I intend to introduce so we have a cycle of players ready to step into the main squad after 2027.”
He is also hoping Cricket Canada will organize friendly matches before the squad heads for Namibia.
Some of the players who have had a outstanding year include batsmen Harsh Thaker, Pargat Singh, Dilon Heyliger, captain Nick Kirton, Aaron Johson and wicket-keeper Shreyas Movva. The bowling has been in the capable hands of Heyliger, opener Kaleem Sana and all-rounder Saad Bin Zafar.
Thaker, who has also scored a century, leads all batsmen in the group with 489 runs in 12 innings while Pargat has 432 in 11 knocks. All-rounder Heyliger is the top wicket-taker in the group with 25 wickets while Sana has 19 and Zafar has 16.
THREE PAKISTANI CENTURIES
Following that stunning 2-0 Test whitewash by Bangladesh at home a month ago, Pakistan has rediscovered its form against visiting England. Having won the toss Pakistan flayed the England bowling to post 556 in the first innings and England replied with 96 for one after two days of play in Multan on Tuesday.
Skipper Shan Masood hammered 151, Salman Agha was unbeaten on 104 and Abdullah Shafique made 102 in Pakistan’s huge total. At stumps Zak Crawley was unbeaten on 64 and Joe Root was on 32.
INDIA DOMINATES
This was India at its very best. Debutants grabbed their chances with both hands and the experienced players showed their class in the first of three Twenty20 matches versus visiting Bangladesh. The World Twenty20 Cup champions, led by star batsman Suryakumar Yadav, proved too powerful as they ran away with a seven-wicket victory after packaging Bangladesh for 127. Suryakumar, who hammered a brilliant 29, Sanju Samson (29) and Hardik Pandya who battered 39 off 16 balls, made quick work of the chase as it reached its target off just 11.5 overs.
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