Canadian cricket’s Under-19 captain Nitish Kumar was upbeat about the squad’s upcoming participation in the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup after Tuesday’s (February 4th) final indoor practice session at Yashi Sports in North York Ontario. The squad is due to fly from Toronto’s Pearson International Airport on Thursday evening to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Canada has a couple of days before playing a warm-up game against New Zealand (Feb 10), followed by a second warm-up match with Papua New Guinea (Feb 12). Nitish Kumar spoke of the importance of acclimatizing: “In the first few day’s we’ll need to get used to the conditions,” said Nitish .”I’ve played there, but most of the others have not. We will focus on the simple things, doing the basics.”
“I’ve just come back from physically playing cricket outdoors for about a month. We did the basics and made a hundred in a warm-up game, playing on the good wickets down there (in New Zealand). Here, the guys have been doing the right things and working hard,” he said, sounding enthusiastic about the efforts of the coaching staff and players, and looking for some success in the Under-19 World Cup.
The day had begun with fitness exercises followed by fielding drills in three of the indoor nets involving twelve players. “Indoors the fielding practices are not 100 per cent (due to limited space) but about 60 per cent. But we keep practicing the drills, working on throws at the stumps and to the wicketkeeper.”
We briefly looked back at Canada’s success in the 2013 ICC Americas Regional Under-19 Championship that took the team to this 2014 Cricket World Cup. I mentioned the solid efforts of the batting against Bermuda, when Canada scored …, and Nikhil Dutta being named Player of the Tournament for his all round batting, bowling and fielding efforts. The performance against Bermuda appeared a performance model from which to build.
“Nikhil played well in the tournament. It was good for him to be with the senior team (in New Zealand), even though he did not play in a game. He was involved in outdoor practices for about a month which probably helped him. Playing outdoors progress allows faster than playing indoors.”
Thinking about the warm-up games, Nitish Kumar believed “the result does not matter as much as trying to implement the basics and get used to the conditions. We need to get the cobwebs out, specially for the guys who have not played a game since the end of September.”
He expected “New Zealand will probably be a good team. It would be nice to play well in the warm-up games, but the important thing to the management and coaches is to see progress on the basics from the drills and the practices.”
Canada’s opening group match is against Zimbabwe who Nitish was quick to point out “we played….and beat in the 2010 Under-19 World Cup.” Usman Limbada scored 90 in Canada’s 201 for seven, then Canada bowled out Zimbabwe for 191. Zain Mahmood took three wickets and sealed a ten run win with the last two balls left unused by Zimbabwe.
Canada beat Papua New Guinea to clinch eleventh place in the tournament, one spot behind Ireland. A one-two ranking in the Associates Under-19 rankings that reflected Ireland and Caanda reaching the final of the senior ICC World Cup Qualifier in South Africa. Nitish Kumar took three for 23 and scored 38 runs in helping steer Canada to victory in that 2010 playoff game with Papua New Guinea.
“We are all teenagers and will make mistakes. If we do the basics well then we could get some results. If we get the early guys playing well it can make the difference. Cricket is about more than one player. It takes effort to win. If we get five guys going, or if someone does really well and four others do well…..”
Hard work, effort, doing the basics, sticking to the game plan could combine in helping Canadian cricket recover from the severe disappointment of not only failing to reach the senior ICC World Cup in 2015 but a significant fall down the ranks of the ICC Associates and Affiliate ranks. Canada’s juniors, the management and support staff will be looking to take some steps back up cricket’s ladder in this 2014 ICC Cricket World Cup.
Eddie Norfolk