By Umar Ali for CBC Sports
At first, Pubudu Dassanayake wasn’t thrilled with the idea of taking his cricket team to a Twenty20 tournament just prior to the World Cup. But after spending December staring at snow and bad weather, the Canadian national team coach changed his mind.
“When I thought about it, here [in Toronto], there’s snow and you have to be indoors, and, if you go to the Caribbean, you’re going to face all the top quality bowlers, you’re going to play on good grounds and facilities,” Dassanayake said. “We will not change our training, but we will be using the 20 overs to simulate the World Cup format.”
Canada completed a training camp Wednesday and will participate in the Caribbean Twenty20 tournament, in which every match will be streamed live on CBCSports.ca between Jan. 10 and 23.
“It’s a slightly different format than what we’ll face in the World Cup [with its 50 overs], but it’s an opportunity to play against good quality cricketers in a well-organized tournament with good facilities,” said Ravin Moorthy, Canada’s high-performance manager. “It’s a good opportunity for guys to get outside, play some cricket outdoors and dust off some of the cobwebs.”
The Canadians will be slotted in Group B at the Caribbean T20, along with Barbados, Hampshire Royals, Leeward Islands and Trinidad and Tobago. Canada opens against Hampshire in Antigua on Jan. 11 (CBCSports.ca, 3 p.m. ET).
Along with tournament play, Canada will participate in a number of 50-over matches against Antigua and English county club, Somerset. Recently returned from a tour of India, Canada completed the first leg of its World Cup preparations and determined likely candidates for the World Cup’s final 15 roster. Plus, individuals began to get accustomed to their roles and the conditions in India.
Heading into the Caribbean tournament, different goals have been set.
“What we want to achieve, of course, is to win [this] tournament,” Dassanayake said. “But at the same time, it’s all about going with the same plans we’re going to have in the World Cup.
“Having the same batting order, trying to improve our fielding as a group and the variations of how we use our bowlers, is all of the stuff we’re going to work on this tour as a preparation towards the World Cup.”
Moorthy felt being together for nearly a year has the team ready to play, but still needing to prepare for the moment.
“At this stage, it’s not so much technical remediation, it’s learning how to bring your best performance onto the top stage,” he said.
With a final trip to Dubai planned just before arriving in India, Canada hopes to be peaking heading into the World Cup. That said, what would training camp be without some turmoil?
‘Everyone is really focused’
In light of the omission of batsmen Geoff Barnett and Ian Billcliff from the World Cup roster, star batsman John Davison decided last month to withdraw from the squad until further explanation was given for their exclusion.
It is uncertain whether the Davison controversy was a distraction at training camp, but Moorthy feels the team has bonded enough to overcome any tension.
“It’s a group that has very little challenges as everybody seems to enjoy each other’s company so, from that perspective, it’s a pleasure to be a part of,” he said. “Everybody’s on the same page and everyone is really focused towards doing something.”
Given the possibility of playing without Davison, Canada’s all-time leading run scorer, the team might have to rely on some of its youth to fill the void.
“The youngsters that we have, especially Nitish Kumar, Hiral Patel, Ruvindu Gunasekera and Parth Desai, have the talent to be at that level,” Dassanayake said. “Even though they’re young, you can see that these guys came a long way and they do things like senior players.
“I’m expecting them to perform in the World Cup and put on a good show.”