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Cricket Canada have announced that chairman of selectors Chris James will retire effective immediately. James who has served in multiple capacities in Canadian cricket over the past 20 years had initially retired earlier this year but was asked by the organization to stay on to help direct a critical push through the World Cup Qualifiers.
It seems likely that this is at least related to the national team’s dismal performance in the WCT20 qualifier – Cricket Canada appears to be making some drastic changes, with the replacement of the national team coach, and now will be looking for a new selection chair. It does seem however that the squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifier has been decided, based on the announcement of Andy Pick as coach, so perhaps Chris James is now stepping back with his role coming to an end as planned.
Full story from Cricket Canada
Announcement of appointment of Andy Pick
Using the somewhat odd means of a Facebook post, Cricket Canada have confirmed that Andy Pick will return to coach the national team in the World Cup qualifier in January
“Andy’s Back – Andy Pick named Canada’s coach for the Cricket World Cup Qualifiers in New Zealand.
“..having worked with most of the players at various times in the past i am looking forward linking up with them again. They’ve had a tough time in UAE and must regroup and work hard to produce better results in New Zealand and I hope to be able to facilitate that process.”
Writing for CricInfo-
The World Twenty20 Qualifier was the tournament that was supposed to right the ship for Canada and put them back among the best teams in Associate cricket. A 16-team tournament with a curious format that opened a window every time a door closed meant that a team prone to inconsistency, like Canada, could slip up a couple of times and still be one of the six teams to qualify for the World Twenty20 in March. To not make it, Canada would need to fall to both equal and better teams, lose the plot when facing weaker sides, squander winning positions, and generally have no discernible game plan. They duly obliged…..
Canada’s steady fall from grace is alarming, with results on the field belying any claim to still being one of the leading Associates. This team was the best Canada had assembled since the 2009 World Cup Qualifiers and the utter pasting it got at the hands of other Associate teams in the UAE should have a sobering effect.
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When asked why Nepal and Hong Kong – and not Canada – are going to the World Cup in Bangladesh starting next March, Logie’s response was quite telling. “They are passionate and determined, they have the will to succeed, there is a sense of camaraderie among them and they are happy with each other,” said Logie. “That’s the feedback I get from their camps and those are things we have to emulate.”
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Canada will play in Group A in the upcoming World Cup qualifier in New Zealand, January 13-February 1. Their group includes top seeded UAE, Scotland, Hong Kong and Nepal. Group B consists of Netherlands, Kenya, Namibia, Papua New Guinea and Uganda. Teams contest a round robin, with the top three in each going into a Super Six series.
From there the two finalists are found. Both will win places in the World Cup proper, which begins on February 14, 2015 (source NZ Herald).
Canada will find it tough going against UAE and Scotland, but will hope to beat Hong Kong and Nepal to gain the top three, although both teams performed far better than Canada in the recent T20 qualifier.
Given how important the next few months will be for the team, Doug Hannum, CEO of Cricket Canada, said it was time for the board to act. “This is obviously a challenging time for the organisation but this decision is made with a view to prepare and send the best team to the World Cup Qualifier in January,” he said. “Unfortunately you cannot change 15 players at once and something had to give.It’s up to the playing group to pick themselves up give a good account of themselves in New Zealand.”…
“We would like to thank Gus for all that he did while he was with us. His efforts in 2003 in South Africa are part of Canada’s sporting history and his hard work and dedication to his craft are unparalleled,” Ravin Moorthy, the Cricket Canada president, said. “It’s unfortunate that his tenure had to end after the disappointing tour of the UAE, but unfortunately this is a results-driven business and the results just weren’t there.”
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ICC media release
Ashish Bagai of Canada and Carl Sandri of Italy have been reprimanded for breaching the ICC Code of Conduct during their sides’ match on day ten of the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier UAE 2013 in Dubai on Sunday. Bagai and Sandri were found to have breached Article 2.1.8 of the ICC Code of Conduct, which relates to “conduct that is contrary to the spirit of the game” and “bringing the game into disrepute”. After the end of the play, both players admitted the offence and accepted the sanction proposed by match referee Dev Govindjee. As such, there was no need for a formal hearing. The charge relates to an incident in the 12th over of the Italy innings, after Sandri was given out and aggressively approached the bowler, following which Bagai approached and exchanged words with Sandri. The charge was brought by on-field umpires Steve Davis and C.Shamsuddin, and reserve umpire Derek Walker. All Level 1 breaches for this offence carry a penalty of a warning/reprimand and/or the imposition of a fine up to 50 per cent of the applicable match fee.
Cricket Canada have announced via their twitter account that national team coach Gus Logie is departing. With only a few weeks before the World Cup qualifying tournament a new coach will be a high priority. While drastic changes might seem in order following a series of poor performances, culminating in a desperately poor T20 World Cup qualifying tournament, the timing of Logie’s departure is problematic.
We have learned that Andy Pick will likely coach Canada in the World Cup qualifier on a short term contract. This, if true, is a sensible choice as Pick coached Canada in 2006-07 and as ICC High Performance Manager for the Americas Region is familair with the players and team.
The T20 World Cup qualifier was the end of the 2013 international season for Canada, a season that was highly disappointing in terms of results on the field. There were successes, notably the Under 19 squad who won the Americas qualifying competition, and the women’s team had their first real experience of international competition, albeit not with much success.
The senior mens team, however had a poor season. Canada finished bottom of the InterContinental Cup table, bottom of the World Cricket League 50-over table, and 12th in the T20 qualifier. A strong series against the USA and a ICC win over the Netherlands provided a brief bright period in the year.
The national team had been consistently among the top associates for more than a decade, with ICC Trophy finishes of 7th (1997), 3rd (2001), 3rd (2005), playing in the World Cup in 2003, 2007 and 2011, and playing in the finals of the Intercontinental Cup in 2004 and 2007. The decline since the 2011 World Cup has been startling, especially as the team that competed in 2011 was comparatively young, and looked to have a bright future. The national body certainly made serious efforts to develop the national team, with good support in terms of pre-tournament tours, introduction of central contracts, the National Cricket League program and more. The measure of success however is the performance on the field, and unless Canada can manage to finish in the top two in January’s World Cup qualifying tournament there’s no doubt some serious decisions will have to be made about the future of the programme.
Continue reading Canada in 2013
The national team’s final game of the year was the 11th place play off against Kenya in the WCT20 qualifier. Canada came up against 42-year old Steve Tikolo, who provided a reminder of the class that led Kenya to a World Cup semi final, with a quick 40 and then taking 3/16. Despite a captain’s innings from Bagai, Canada were well beaten by 25 runs.
The two teams who both have fallen significantly in the associate rankings in recent years were evenly matched. Kenya batted first and Tikolo made a 23 ball 40 to get the Kenyans off to a good start. After 10 overs, Kenya had 80 on the board. Raza-ur-Rehman took 2/16 from his four overs, including the wicket of Tikolo, stumped. Collins Obuya (40) kept up one end but wickets falling at the other kept the run-rate down. Kenya ended up on 146/7.
Canada’s opening batting has been a problem in this tournament, and yet again they lost quick wickets. Gunasekera smashed two fours and a six but was out caught in the deep in the second over, and Cheema followed for a duck 4 balls later – 17/2 after two overs. Yet again Bagai, this time in partnership with Limabada, was faced with re-building after a poor start. They took the total to 44 before Limbada (16) was run out, and then Hansra fell to Tikolo’s spin – 48/4. Raza-ur-Rehman was caught behind in the eleventh over, bringing in Hamza Tariq. He hit a couple of sixes in a 16 ball 22, but was caught with Canada needing 52 from 31 balls. Junaid Siddiqui and Baidwan both fell to Tikolo in the 18th over and two run outs ended the innings, with Bagai the last man to fall for 48.
It was perhaps an appropriate end to a dismal tournament for Canada, with Bagai the only consistent bat, making 247 runs at an average of 35. Hansra also topped 200 runs, but the rest of the team provided inadequate support. Baidwan and Gordon shared top wicket taking honours with 11 each, but Baidwan was expensive, conceding 8/ over. Abzal Dean deserved his place with the best economy rate, although he only played in half the games. Canada have a lot of work to do before the qualification tournament for the World Cup proper in 6 weeks time.
Scorecard
“Like many of our fans and supporters we are surprised and disappointed by the results that have come out of Abu Dhabi. With our late summer and pre-tour form, as well as our performance in the warm-up matches, there was no indication of what was to come in the first few days of the tournament. Unfortunately we were not able to recover from the shock loss to the United States,or the thriller against Ireland ,in the first days of the tournament, and things unraveled from there.
We know as an organization that the performance in the World Twenty20 Qualifier is unacceptable however, we also know that it is not indicative of the ability of our side or the efforts made to prepare the team for this tournament. We also know that our supporters and stakeholders deserve a better result than what occured in Abu Dhabi.
While this was certainly an unwelcome situation, we had been prepared for any scenario coming out of the tournament and ,while this is certainly the worst case, we do have go forward plans ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier in 6 weeks time.”
Full statement
Canada v Kenya for 11th place on Tuesday
Canada beat Italy by five wickets with four balls to spare in Sunday’s ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. Canada held Italy to 104 for six, then overcame another burst of three early wickets from Gayashan Munasinghe thanks to a patient stand of 73 for the fourth wicket between Rizwan Cheema (34) and Jimmy Hansra (32). There was a slight scare as Hansra fell to the last ball of the sixteenth over and Cheema followed next ball, but Damodar Daesrath and Raza ur-Rehman restored order and garner the 18 runs needed to complete a second Canadian Group A win.
Continue reading Canada closes Group A with an Italian job win
Canada will place 6th or lower in Group A after beating Italy by 5 wickets in their final group stage match. Italy never recovered from Gordon’s opening spell, falling to 15/3. Damian Crowley made 61* to take them to 104/6 from their 20 overs. Gordon took 3/15. Canada made an equally poor start, losing Gunasekera, Patel and Bagai with only 124 runs on the board, but Cheema with 34 (opening and batting through to the 18th over) and Hansra (32) gave Canada a win by 5 wickets (with 4 balls remaining.
Canada will play a placing match with a group B non-qualifier to conclude a highly disappointing tournament, As it turned out one more win would have put them into the play-offs, and they will regret losses to opponents that on paper at least they should have beaten. The shorter T20 tournament does encourage upsets, but the 5 losses appear to point to a significant decline of Canadian cricket when compared to the other associates.
Scorecard
The glimmering candle of Canadian hope that if the UAE beat Italy today (November 23) then a Canadian win against Italy on Sunday might see Canada reach the playoff phase of the ICC World Twenty20 qualifier has been extinguished. Italy, invited to bat first by the UAE, scored 158 for five then bowled out the UAE for 91 runs. Italy won by 67 runs.
Continue reading Italian win over UAE finally sinks Canada
Canada’s faint hopes of qualification for the WCT20 are gone after a loss to Namibia. Their record now is one win and six losses, with just Italy to play. Canada were bowled out for just 117, Gunasekera top-scoring with 25, and Hansra contributing 23. The Canadians managed just 9 boundaries, with Sholtz taking 5 /13.
Canada at least extended the game to the last over, but Namibia, led by a patient 58 from van Schoor, paced their innings well, and with 8 needed from six balls, consecutive boundaries saw them home.
Scorecard
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Cricket 2013
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