Excitement builds ahead of ICC World Cricket League Division 3

Eight-day tournament which starts today (23 May) involves Canada, Malaysia, Oman, Singapore, Uganda and USA.

Excitement builds ahead of ICC World Cricket League (WCL) Division 3 with six teams battling it out to keep their ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 dreams alive.

The eight-day tournament which starts tomorrow (23 May) involves Canada, Malaysia, Oman, Singapore, Uganda and USA. Six of the 26 teams who still remain from the 83 Members on the road to the 2019 Cricket World Cup.

Hosts Uganda face Canada at Lugogo, Canadian captain Nitish Kumar believes the team have a great chance at the tournament. “I think we have a great chance of winning it, we have a really good team which has been training well and had four good warm up games against Zimbabwe A. So it’s just about executing our plans and skills and we should be able to be successful throughout the tournament.”

Uganda captain Davis Arinaitwe Karashani is hopeful for early victory in the competition. “I believe if the playing XI on the day execute their roles and plans, we should get over the line against Canada. Playing at home comes as both bitter and sweet. Sweet as we are familiar with conditions and bitter due to overwhelming national expectations.”

USA, ICC WCL Division 4 winners face ladder-climbing Oman in Entebbe. Steven Taylor, USA captain is looking to build on experience gained in Division 4. “As a team we are just hoping to play good cricket, and take it one game at a time, and I have no doubts that if we do that we will end this event on top of the standings. As for the experience from WCL 4, yes we can build from that, we as a group have definitely improved since the last event.”

Sultan Ahmed, Oman captain, says the team will take confidence from previous matches against its opponents. “Chances of climbing to Division 2 looks promising after the recent successful performances, we have also beaten most of the sides in Division 3. Even though we were defeated in LA (Division 4), we have now studied the team properly and are very confident that we can be victorious.”

Malaysia face Singapore in Kyambogo on the first day of competition. This tournament is very important for Malaysia captain, Ahmad Faiz. “ICC WCL Div 3 in Uganda is one of the most important tournament for Malaysian Cricket. The team are focusing on being crowned champions and being promoted to Division 2. There are six matches all together, I hope we all can deliver the best from our side to achieve our main aim to be a champion.”

Chetan Suryawanshi, captain of Singapore Men’s Team and National Development officer of Singapore Cricket Association believes good preparation will aid the team. “The team have had good preparation from January playing against competitive teams. Our side is balanced and has exciting players. Hopes are pretty much high as we have beaten Oman, USA and Malaysia in World Cricket League competition before, but we have to take one game at a time as all teams are equally competitive.”

The squads are as follows:

Canada: Nitish Kumar (captain), Bhavindu Adhihetty, Cecil Pervez, Dhanuka Pathirana, Durand Soraine, Hamza Tariq, Amarbir Hansra, Junaid Siddiqui, Mark Montfort, Navneet Dhaliwal, Nikhil Dutta, Rizwan Cheeme, Saad Zafar, Satsimranjit Dhindsa

Malaysia: Ahmad Faiz (captain), Aminudin Ramly, Pavandeept Singh, Jagjit Singh, Derek Michael Duraisingam, Che Wan Razlan Zalati, Syed Aziz Syedd Mubarak, Muhammad Wafiq Irfan Zarbani, Mohd Shukri Abdul Rahin, Mohd Anwar Arudin, Virandeep Singh, Muhammad Anwar A Rahman, Mohamad Fikri Makram Wan Mod Rosdi, Mohd Shafiq Mohd Sharif, Khizar Hayat Durrani

Oman: Ahmed Sultan (captain), Aaqib Ilyas Sulehrim, Ajay Vrajlal Lalcheta, Twinkal Bhandari, Bilal Khan, Khawar Ali, Muhammed Nadeem, Munis Ansari, Muhammad Naseem, Noorul Riaz, Kadir Mohideen, Zeeshan Maqsood, Sufyan Mahmood Muslim, Mahmood Mohammed, Arun Poulose Manavalan, Jatinder Singh

Singapore: Chetan Ramchandra Suryawanshi (captain), Mahboob Amjad, Dharmichand Mulewa, Anish Edward Paraam, Anantha Krishna, Kshitij Ballram Shinde, Parag Dahiwal, Rohan Rangarajan, Suresh Appusamy, Arjun Mutreja, Kumarage Chaminda Ruwan, Vijaya Kumar Selladorre, Janak Prakash, Navin Michael Paraam

Uganda: Davis Arinaitwe Karashani (captain), Arthur Solomon Kyobe, Brian Masaba, Deusdedit Muhumuza, Roger Mukasa, Arnold Otwani, Jonathan Sebania, Henry Ssenyondo, Frank Nsubuga, Charles Waiswa, Laurence Sematimba, Muhammad Sahibzada Irfan, Hamu Begenda Kayondo, Shahzad Ukani

United States of America: Steven Taylor (captain), Akeem Dodson, Alex Amsterdam, Camilus Alexander, Elmore Hutchinson, Fahad Babar, Jasdeep Singh, Mohammed Ibrahim Khaleel, Mrunal Patel, Muhammad Ahsan Ali Khan, Nosthusha Kenjige, Nicholas Standford, Timil Patel, Timroy Allen

The match officials are:

Match Referee- Dev Govindjee
Mentor Umpire- Shaun George
Umpire- David Odhiambo
Umpire- Buddhi Pradhan
Umpire- Vinay Kumar Jha
Umpire- Kalidas Viswanadan
Umpire- Rockie D’Mello
Umpire- Akbar Ali Khan
Umpire- Pim Van Liemt
Umpire- Andrew Wynand Louw

Fixtures:

23 May: Uganda v Canada (Lugogo); Malaysia v Singapore (Kyambogo); USA v Oman (Entebbe)
24 May: Canada v Oman (Lugogo); Malaysia v USA (Kyambogo); Uganda v Singapore (Entebbe)
25 May: Rest/Reserve
26 May: Singapore v USA (Lugogo); Uganda v Oman (Kyambogo); Canada v Malaysia (Entebbe)
27 May: Uganda v Malaysia (Lugogo); Canada v USA (Kyambogo); Singapore v Oman (Entebbe)
28 May: Rest/Reserve
29 May: Malaysia v Oman (Lugogo); Canada v Singapore (Kyambogo); Uganda v USA (Entebbe)
30 May: Final (Lugogo); 3rd v 4th Playoff (Kyambogo); 5th v 6th Playoff (Entebbe)