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Canada embarks on its most consequential cricket series inside the next two weeks.
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The 24-man squad has been in hard training for the past two weeks and it has now been whittled down to 18. Expect another three to be trimmed before 15 head out to Oman for the triangular that also involves Nepal.
It will be hot and humid in the Middle East enclave with temperatures hitting 35C and expect the competition to be hotter as well with so much at stake.
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Canada’s goal is to win at least two or three of the four encounters and lock up its One-Day International (ODI) status. Failure to do that will send the country tumbling down the ladder and a slew of fixtures against lower-ranked squads for maybe the next 10 years.
Let’s face it: Canada is a far superior product but off-field controversies resulted in Cricket Canada being banned by the International Cricket Council. Luckily, since the global body is keen on growing the sport, it is committed to funding the national squad.
This new-look squad without three former internationals was put through its paces by an equally new assistant with little international experience, Amarinder Bhinder, at King City last week. Bhinder previously has had limited action with the squad and his elevation to assistant coach came as a surprise.
How is Canada’s coaching search going?
Meanwhile, Cricket Canada has interviewed some 10 coaches and are now in serious talks with three. the role is Tejinderpal Singh, a former player and the batting coach for Punjab’s senior men’s squad
If he is appointed, TP, as he is known, will assume his coaching duties in Oman but he would be of little help.
The national body also meets in the next two days to get a chief operating officer to replace Bhavjit Jauhar, whose term ended last week.
been whittled down to three. Jauhar, possibly the most experienced of the lot, is among those three and the other who is being courted is Gaurav Virmani, who has connections with the Indian Cricket Board — and that’s about all we know of him
And no captain has been selected yet for the trip to Oman, but it either will be Harsh Thaker or Shreyas Movva. Most of the players will compete in the Super 60 T10 tournament at Vancouver’s BC Place from Sept. 29 to Oct. 4.
Fans love this smash-and-grab competition, but this will not help Canada in its preparation for a different format in Oman. Taking the squad to Oman to acclimatize to the conditions would have made more sense than competing indoors in Vancouver.
The squad for Oman: Ajayveer Hundal, Dilraj Deol, Sumit Gohil, Harsh Thakar, Aaron Johnson, Akhil Kumar, Kaleem Sana, Zahid Shehzad, Sheel Patel, Shreyas Movya, Hamza Tariq, Sukhjinder Singh, Yuvraj Samra, Shivam Sharma, Aditya Varadharajan, Ali Nadeem, Salman Rana and Warren Campbell.
ENGLAND DIGS DOWN UNDER
In recent times, England has dug deep Down Under to select its coaches. The latest catch is former New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming, who replaces his former Kiwi teammate Brendon McCullum.
McCullum arrived in a burst of glory and a lot of talk, but he failed to make the huge impact as advertised. The English Cricket Board did not fire him, instead moved him sideways as coach of the white ball squads.
Enter Fleming and, as expected, he told the long-suffering England fans what they wanted to hear. It was music to their ears.
“I can’t wait for the Ashes,” was his battle cry.
Fans lapped it up. Then again those are the same lines uttered by previous coaches, including McCullum. But they have all been muzzled and handcuffed by those tough-to-beat Australians.
Last year was an embarrassment as the Australians were labelled “too old,” but the golden oldies handed England a beating.
Back to the present, where one other appointment has raised more than a few eyebrows and many shaking heads. That’s the appointment of Kevin Pietersen, who has been roped in as a specialist mentor until next year’s World Cup (50 overs) in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
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The South African-born Pietersen took England by storm with his batting exploits and established himself as one of the country’s greatest batsmen. But he was a controversial figure who at one time was accused of putting the knife into the backs of some of the teammates he shared the dressing room with.
Former star players such as skipper Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook had run-ins with Pietersen and that saw two of England’s classiest openers retire.
“He was trying to do something that was right for him and that was actually detrimental to the team,” Strauss said. “That was a big issue and that’s kind of the background to how everything went wrong in the end,” he added.
Pietersen’s international career came to an abrupt halt and ECB severed all ties with him. It will be interesting to see how he is welcomed.
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Source: torontosun.com
