Canada banks on expats to reach World Cup

They were all born outside Canada and learnt their cricket at home. But a rag-tail bunch of immigrants believe lady luck will help their adopted country reach the 2011 World Cup.

For a team featuring an accountant, a credit card technician, an IT student, a construction worker, a cricket coach and only one first-class player in batsman Geoff Barnett, cricket remains a part-time job for them.

"Like players in other established countries, we are passionate about the game and want to give our best for Canada," said Trevin Bastiampillai, 23, who took a year's sabbatical from his IT studies to pursue the World Cup dream.

"Of course we will qualify for the World Cup, I am fairly confident, we can make it," said the Sri Lankan-born Bastiampillai.

Coached by former Sri Lankan wicketkeeper-batsman Pubudu Dassanayake, Canada has picked a mix of expatriates and veterans for the World Cup qualifying tournament which takes place in South Africa from April 1-18.

"We are going with the best available talent, focussing on experience, to get past the qualifying round," Dassanayake, 38, told AFP during the team's six-week training camp in Colombo.

With training at home during winter near impossible, Dassanayake picked Sri Lanka for its hot humid weather and the bouncy wickets at Colombo's P. Saravanamuttu Stadium grounds to simulate South African conditions.

The April qualifier will feature Afghanistan, Bermuda, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Kenya, Namibia, Netherlands, Scotland, UAE, Uganda and Oman.

The top four teams will then book their berth for the 2011 World Cup to be hosted jointly by India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

A place in the top six will also guarantee one-day international status for the next four years.

Former Sri Lankan captain Marvan Atapattu has stepped in as specialist batting coach ahead of the tournament.

"Marvan's been a great influence on technique and patience, how to score off every ball in one-day games and how to build an innings in Test matches," said Pakistani-born Khurram Chohan, 28.

The squad trains in Colombo on weekdays and plays club cricket alongside local players during the weekends. They also played two matches with the visiting Bahrain national team.

"It's been a big learning curve, playing with a wide variety of players within a short time," said Ugandan-born Henry Osinde.

Since making their World Cup debut in 1979, Canada has not made it past the first round. But they do have some swashbuckling players in their line-up for the qualifiers.

Top among the pick is Australian-born former skipper John Davison, 38, who smashed the fastest World Cup century - 111 runs off 76 balls - at the 2003 tournament in South Africa.

Then there is Pakistani-born 30-year-old Rizwan Cheema, who struck an entertaining 68 off 43 balls against Sri Lanka in the Canadian Twenty20 tournament last October.

Joining them will be seasoned players like their India-born captain Ashish Bagai, and another India import Sunil Dhaniram in a 30-member pool that mostly has players both in the Caribbean or South Asia.

However, like most ICC associate nations, cricket remains a minority-interest game in Canada followed mainly by first and second generation immigrants.

"It's tough to juggle work, family, studies and sometimes take time off work, to master the game," says Umar Bhatti, 25, who moved with his family from Pakistan.

Dassanayake said work committments had forced some of the veteran players like Davison, Barnett, Ian Billcliff, Dhaniram and Bagai to either skip or join the tail-end of the training camp.

However, the team's most nerve wracking experience came off the field, when Tamil Tigers carried out their recent suicide air raid in Colombo. Troops knocked off the power supply and fired anti aircraft guns into the air.

Based inside one of Colombo's upmarket hotels, the Canadians watched the tracer bullets light up the skyline and heard one of the suicide planes crash into the nearby Inland Revenue Department building.