December 2009

President sees bright year ahead - Saini talks to CricInfo -- Posted Thursday, December 31 2009
President sees bright year ahead (CricInfo)

Canada cricket optimistic over sponsors
Sahil Dutta
December 28, 2009

Cricket Canada is confident that it can overcome the loss of sponsors Scotiabank as it prepares for a busy year of international cricket and plans to host a global limited-over event that will put Canadian cricket at the centre of the world's calendar.

Canadian cricket has been on the verge of crisis after it emerged in November that a $500,000 deal with Scotiabank had collapsed but Ranjit Saini, the board's new president, told Cricinfo he is confident Canada can rebuild and perform well next year.

"We're on the edge of a year of success," he said. "Despite the shoe-string budget we're on, we have the combination of players, coaches and administrators to find success. I believe we've turned the corner and are now on our way to becoming a well respected associate nation."

With associate nations like the Netherlands and Ireland having enjoyed good recent outings in international tournaments, and Ireland even pushing the ICC for full-member status, Saini has set clear targets for Canada's on-field progress next year.

"Qualifying for the Twenty20 World Cup is important and we want the Under 19s to progress to the Super Eights stage in the World Cup in January. Also the women's team qualifying for the World Cup, which is very likely, would represent a good year and be a big morale booster to everyone involved in Canadian cricket."

But the loss of Scotiabank, especially given the circumstances where the company labelled Cricket Canada's performance as "unsatisfactory", overshadows on-field achievements. Saini, however, was at pains to point out the deal had not ended acrimoniously despite evidence to the contrary.

"Scotiabank were going to sponsor us for a further three-year agreement and they wouldn't have done this if they were unhappy with the previous one. The proposal was, however, difficult for us to take up. They had a set of requirements, which we would be unable to meet without extra funding."

Scotiabank, he continued, were looking for greater exposure and wanted Cricket Canada to commit money up-front for a domestic tournament alongside an expanded grassroots programme, but Saini said that this would have been impossible.

"The geography of Canada is enormous, moving people around the country requires a lot of time and a lot of money. To run six teams for Under-19 cricket and six teams for a senior tournament would a cost a bare minimum of $300,000 - that's just the minimum.

"If you then had to deliver the schools programme in addition there's a further $200,000 to $250,000. The ICC funding, once you have paid the players' salaries and the mandatory costs that come up, would not be enough - you'll have players on a contract but no grounds to play on, you'll have a coach but no money to buy the balls. So it's a sad story but there is nothing we could do about it."

Even though the board's income is now without Scotiabank's cash, Saini insisted it had taken on board what happened and was developing new plans to attract finance to the game, which could see a multitude of sponsors getting on board.

"We have developed a different strategy; we will look for smaller, local sponsors for $5000 each, and see if we can build from that. And then we're looking at government sponsors as well, and now we've learned our lesson, we could plan differently and do proper costing from the beginning; if a big sponsor came along we could accept that."


Cricket growing in Fraser Valley (Abbotsford News) -- Posted Tuesday, December 29 2009

Published: December 24, 2009 1:00 PM

by Jessica Murdy



“Cricket is a very long and boring sport,” Scott Anderson says.

That’s from the man trying to get Fraser Valley kids to embrace the centuries-old bat and ball game.

But he means cricket as it used to be. A game for men. A slow game. An almost antiquated game. And even worse, a game that could last up to five days – a long time for an elementary student to stay focused, to say the least.

Well, cricket isn’t long and boring anymore, he says.

A shortened version, called Twenty20, was officially introduced to the sports world in 2003. It’s just like cricket. But like most things these days, it’s high speed, abbreviated and quickly finished up in just over two hours. And that appeals to kids.

Anderson and the rest of the Eastern District Cricket Club have been working to create a youth development program within their league, the British Columbia Mainland League. They’ve had plenty of success in Abbotsford already, working in several schools in that district. Now they are reaching out to Chilliwack, Agassiz, Mission, and Hope.

They offer hands-on coaching for teachers and students, and give the schools equipment packages to work into their regular curriculum.

And so far, it’s working. Anderson says the new fast-paced cricket is so popular, it’s created demand for a youth league. And a youth tournament could be as close as this April or May. That would be played on the new cricket pitch being built behind A.D. Rundle middle school in Chilliwack, with support from the city’s parks and recreation department.

Anderson touts cricket as being more inclusive than its cousin, baseball.

“I’m very biased because I grew up with it,” Anderson says. “In cricket you can hit it anywhere. In cricket you always have a chance to get involved.”

Twenty20 is popular in India and Pakistan, he says. But in Canada, it seems that the only ones who play it, or are even familiar with it, are those who grew up in Asian or European countries where cricket is popular.

“But cricket here is a case of they only played if their dads played,” Anderson says. “There hasn’t been any junior development.”

Now they’re using a $2,000 grant from the 2010 Legacies Now program to reach out into as many schools as possible, and share their game with kids.

Once they get the youth division started, they hope to develop young players for national and international competition.

“We hope to be seeing, maybe in five years, one of our kids playing for B.C., maybe one for Canada,” Anderson says. “The grants we have received have all been based on being active with kids. This is an activity they can do rather than being out mucking around.”

If you are a teacher or parent interested in cricket youth development, or an adult who wishes to play cricket locally, phone Anderson at 604-491-4442 for more information.


Cricket Canada Announces U19 Cricket World Cup Squad -- Posted Sunday, December 27 2009


Cricket Canada is pleased to announce the following squad for the U19 Cricket World Cup in New Zealand.

The team will depart for Auckland on January 1st to participate in a preparatory camp before moving to Christchurch for warm up matches vs South Africa on January 11th, and Hong Kong on January 12th. The tournament gets underway for Canada on January 15th vs Zimbabwe.

Full Squad:

Rustam Bhatti (captain), Manny Aulakh, Parth Desai, Darius D'Souza, Ruvindu Gunasekara, Hardik Kotak, Nitish Kumar, Usman Limbada, Zain Mahmood, Asif Manjra, Hiral Patel, Riyazkhan Pathan, Arsalan Qadir, Harpreet Singh, Hamza Tariq.


Cricket Canada Announce SL Training Camp and T20 Quadrangular Squad -- Posted Sunday, December 27 2009


Cricket Canada is pleased to announce a 14 man squad for the 2010 Sri Lanka Training Camp and Quad T20 Series.

The senior team will depart for Colombo in early January where they will engage in an intense training camp prior to locking horns with Sri Lanka A, Ireland, and Afghanistan in a T20 Quadrangular Series.

The training camp and series will serve as a warm up to February's T20 World Cup Qualifier in Dubai.

Full Squad:

Ashish Bagai - Captain, Harvir Baidwan, Trevin Bastiampillai, Umar Bhatti, Saad Bin Zafar, Rizwan Cheema, Khurram Chohan, Sunil Dhaniram, Sandeep Jyoti, Shaheed Keshvani, Thanna Kurooparan, Henry Osinde, Abdool Samad, Jason Sandher.

The squad will be joined by a select number of U19 players at the conclusion of the U19 World Cup from New Zealand as Canada prepares for an exciting and action packed 2010 cricket schedule.


Coalition rallies for Canadian team sports -- Posted Saturday, December 19 2009

The Province

TORONTO — A coalition of 19 national sport-governing bodies have joined forces in order to promote the importance of team sport.

A study sponsored by the Canadian Team Sports Coalition shows team sports play an important role in developing athletes for all types of sports, but the coalition feels its members are underfunded. In 2007-08 team sports received only 17 per cent of the $111 million Sport Canada handed out in direct funding.

“There is urgency for team sports to work together,” Wayne Parrish, Canada Basketball executive director, said in a statement. “The Canadian sport system currently focuses largely on medal count to determine funding. This model does not reflect the many benefits of team sport, such as leadership, the physical development of children, economic impact, community development and patriotism.

“In this coalition we have a new crop of leaders who are willing to work to bring these issues to the forefront.”

The CTSC published the report Full Team Ahead: The Benefits of Team Sport to Canadian Sport and polled 572 high-performance athletes, 48 per cent of whom were currently active in a team sport and 43 per cent who were active in an individual sport. The rest considered themselves both team and individual athletes.

The CTSC said 90 per cent of the athletes surveyed participated in team sports in the developmental stages of their careers and that 73 per cent of the athletes surveyed indicated that participation in team sport was important to their development as an athlete.

“The focus of the Canadian Team Sports Coalition is to strengthen our team sport in Canada by raising awareness levels of its distinct benefits, many of which have been highlighted in our research,” added Bob Nicholson, executive director and chief executive officer of Hockey Canada. “We hope that our efforts as a coalition will help change a funding model that focuses primarily on medal count.”

Other CTSC members are: Handball Canada; Volleyball Canada; Canadian Cricket Association; Rugby Canada; Water Polo Canada; Canadian Lacrosse Association; Canadian Soccer Association; Sledge Hockey Canada; Field Hockey Canada; Canadian Blind Sport Association; Softball Canada; Canadian Wheelchair Basketball Association; Baseball Canada; Wheelchair Rugby Association; Football Canada; Broomball Canada Federation; and Ringette Canada.


Canada to play in 20-20 Sri Lanka tourney in Jan-Feb (RTE) -- Posted Friday, December 18 2009
Irish set for T20 quadrangular tournament

Friday, 18 December 2009 09:54
Cricket Ireland have confirmed details of a quadrangular T20 competition which will take place in Sri Lanka following the conclusion of their Intercontinental Cup clash with Afghanistan.

The tournament will run from 31 January to 4 February, and features Ireland, Sri Lanka A, Afghanistan and Canada.

Ireland coach Phil Simmons sees the tournament as ideal preparation for the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifiers in The UAE:
'This will give the squad a good work-out ahead of the UAE leg of the tour. It'll get the players into the mindset of the shorter format of the game.

'We still haven't played a lot of 20 over cricket, although the experience of playing in the finals in England last year will help us. There are only two places up for grabs for the finals in the West Indies, so it will be difficult for all the teams.

'There will be a lot of pressure games with so much at stake, but we have a lot of experience in our camp, which is so vital as we showed last year when we won the World Cup qualifiers in South Africa.

'I and the players want to make it four in a row in terms of qualifying for the major tournaments - when you get a taste of the big time, you want more. The players are still hungry for more success, and for me there would be the added bonus of coaching Ireland in the West Indies.

'We did fantastically well there in 2007, as that's where we really announced ourselves on the world stage. Ireland has happy memories of the West Indies - it'd be great if we could have a few more in 2010.'

Ireland's fixtures in full in the competition are as follows:

31 Jan - Ireland v Sri Lanka A (SSC)
1 Feb - Ireland v Canada (P Sara)
3 Feb - Ireland v Afghanistan (SSC)
4 Feb - T20 Final and 3/4 Play Off (SSC)


Windies U19s beat Canada U19s by six wickets (Stabroek News) -- Posted Thursday, December 17 2009
Windies U19s beat Canada U19s by six wickets
By Stabroek staff | December 17, 2009 in Sports


BASSETERRE, St Kitts, CMC – West Indies U19s, bolstered by an attacking 49 from Evin Lewis, wrapped up their second consecutive practice match win yesterday, whipping Canada by six wickets in their ICC 2010 Youth World Cup warm-up game at Warner Park.

Batting first, Canada U19s scored 128 all out in 41.4 overs and the young Windies endured two rain stoppages before surging to victory at 132 for four off 26.4 overs.

Coming off their 71-run defeat in Monday’s rain-affected first match, Canada won the toss and struggled after electing to bat.

Akeem Dewar bagged three for 27 off 10 overs and his leg-spin partner Yannic Cariah claimed two for 20 off his 10 overs to smother the North Americans’ batting effort.

Darius D’Souza (26) and Hiral Patel (25) were Canada’s chief scorers, while opening bowlers Keon Joseph (1-22) and Nelson Bolan (1-28), Jermaine Blackwood (1-17) and Yannick Ottley (1-12) shared the other wickets.
West Indies U19s rushed to 51 for one off seven overs at the lunch break.

Rain held up play for 40 minutes after lunch and stalled play again when the Windies U19s were on course for victory at 81 for two after 14 overs. The players were off the field for an hour and 10 minutes and the home side duly wrapped up the authoritative victory on the resumption with more than 23 overs to spare.

The left-handed opener Lewis struck three fours and four sixes before falling one short of his half-century and Trevon Griffith scored 21, with two fours and two sixes.

Captain Ottley (15) and John Campbell (16), both run-out, were the other wickets to fall.
Carriah (9) and Dewar (14) were the not-out batsmen when victory was achieved.

Standout performers in Monday’s 71-run victory, Andre Creary and Kraigg Brathwaite, did not play yesterday.
Canada will play a St Kitts U23 team this weekend before completing their tour.

Both teams will begin their 2010 Youth World Cup campaign on January 15 – West Indies facing Pakistan at Fitzherbert Park and Canada tackling Zimbabwe at the Queen Elizabeth II Ground.


ICC confirms 2010 InterContinental Cup fixtures -- Posted Wednesday, December 16 2009
Canada play Afghanistan in the UAE 17-20 February, and host Zimabwe and Ireland in late August/ September.

The International Cricket Council today confirmed the remaining fixtures in its first-class tournament, the ICC Intercontinental Cup 2009-10, with everything leading towards next November's final, which will take place in the United Arab Emirates.

The next match to be played will start on 23 January between defending champion Ireland facing newcomer Afghanistan in a match to be played in Sri Lanka. Two days' later, second-placed Kenya will take on 2004 champion and current leader Scotland in a top-of-the-table clash.

Remaining fixtures for the second-tier ICC Intercontinental Shield have also been announced.

ICC INTERCONTINENTAL CUP
23-26 Jan Afghanistan v Ireland, Sri Lanka
25-28 Jan Kenya v Scotland, Kenya
17-20 Feb Afghanistan v Canada, UAE
17-20 Feb Kenya v Netherlands, Kenya
10-13 Jun Netherlands v Scotland,Netherlands
11-14 Aug Scotland v Afghanistan,Scotland
11-14 Aug Ireland v Netherlands, Ireland
21-24 Aug Canada v Zimbabwe XI, Canada
1-4 Sep Canada v Ireland, Canada
1-4 Sep Netherlands v Zimbabwe XI, Netherlands
2-5 Oct Kenya v Afghanistan, Kenya
6-9 Oct Zimbabwe XI v Ireland, Africa
13-16 Oct Zimbabwe XI v Scotland, Africa
25-29 Nov FINAL (five days), UAE


Under 19s lose rain affected match vs WIU19s (Starbroek News) -- Posted Tuesday, December 15 2009
BASSETERRE, St Kitts, CMC – The prolific 17-year-old batsman Kraigg Brathwaite stroked a well measured hundred as West Indies Under-19s beat Canada U19s by 71 runs on the Duckworth/Lewis method in their rain-aborted ICC 2010 Youth World Cup practice match yesterday.

Electing to bat in the Warner Park fixture that was reduced to 44 overs per side at the start because of rain, West Indies U19s gathered 231 for four off 44 overs.

Canada reached 74 for four off 24.4 overs when heavy rain terminated the game.
West Indies U19s got a solid start from openers Brathwaite and John Campbell (26), who staged a 69-run first wicket partnership.
Brathwaite was patient initially, pacing himself to his fifty off 80 balls in 102 minutes with two boundaries before unleashing a flurry of shots to compile his hundred.

The young Barbadian faced 129 balls in his undefeated innings, cracking seven fours and two sixes.
Captain Andre Creary belted an attacking 50 off 55 balls with five fours and two sixes.

Left-arm spinner Hiral Patel led Canada’s bowling with two for 24 and then top-scored with 23 in the visitors’ aborted innings.
The Canadians struggled against the Windies U19 spinners Jomel Warrican and Patrick Harty.

Left-arm spinner Warrican produced stifling figures of one for 11 off nine overs and leg-spinner Harty claimed one for 21 off nine overs.

The two teams are slated to face each other again tomorrow.
The young West Indies unit has assembled in St Kitts a month ahead of their opening ICC Youth World Cup match against Pakistan on January 15 in Group D in New Zealand.

West Indies tackle Bangladesh on January 17 and Papua New Guinea two days later in their remaining Group D matches in Napier.


ICC announces schedule for ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in the UAE -- Posted Tuesday, December 15 2009

ICC Media ReleaseTue, Dec 15, 2009 3:16 PM



World-class venues confirmed as Abu Dhabi and Dubai Sports City will play host

The ICC today announced the schedule for the eight-team ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier 2010, which will be hosted by the Emirates Cricket Board in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from 9 to 13 February 2010.

At stake will be a place in the ICC World Twenty20 2010 to be staged in the West Indies. Both finalists from this event will qualify for the big one which will take place at Barbados, Guyana and St Lucia from 30 April to 16 May.

The winner of the tournament will join South Africa and India in Group C while the losing finalist will join Group D which includes the West Indies and England.

The ICC WT20 Qualifier involves two groups of four teams with Ireland, Scotland, Afghanistan and the USA making up Group A while Kenya, the Netherlands, Canada and the UAE will fight it out for supremacy of Group B.

Ireland, Kenya, Scotland, the Netherlands, Afghanistan and Scotland have directly qualified for the qualifier on the basis of their ODI status while the UAE and the USA have been specially invited by the ICC to participate in the tournament.

A total of 17 matches will be played over five days with Abu Dhabi?s Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium hosting six group stage matches and Dubai International Cricket Stadium at Dubai Sports City staging 11 matches, including six group stage matches, four Super Four matches and the final.

ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier UAE

Groupings (In brackets are the seedings. The top five sides have been seeded on the basis of their final positions in the ICC WT20 Qualifier in Belfast in July 2008 while Afghanistan, the UAE and the USA have been seeded on the basis of their 50-over global rankings)

Group A
Ireland (1)
Scotland (3)
Afghanistan (6)
USA (8)

Group B
Netherlands (2)
Kenya (4)
Canada (5)
UAE (7)


Cricket in the Toronto Sun -- Posted Saturday, December 12 2009
Bill Langkhoff in his "2009 Year in Review" says

"There was one sport in which Canada has been making inroads. Cricket. Way back when the colonials still ran this country it was considered our national sport. Then someone invented the hockey puck, the boats from England stopped docking in Halifax every week and the game became an anachronism of a forgotten past.

But, an influx of new Canadians from around the globe has revived the sport and put us back on the international scene. The Canadian team lost to Ireland in the final at the International Cricket Council qualifying tournament but that was still easily good enough to advance to the World Cup next year."

Good to see some mainstream recognition for Canadian cricket


New Cricket Canada web site and more -- Posted Saturday, December 12 2009
Cricket canada have re-designed and re-branded their web site and launched it a press release. Described as a "significant marketing initiative, the project goes beyond the web site alone by linking into youtube videos, flickr photo streams and Facebook groups. There's also an on-line shop. The site, as always, can be found at http://www.canadiancricket.org.

Cricket Canada certainly seem to be going in the right direction here, but the success of this venture will ultimately be measured by content not design. When it comes to the web, it's substance, not style that matters for cricket fans, and Cricket Canada now have to face the challenge of filling all those "coming soon" gaps, and ensuring that this is the number one source of all things related to Canadian cricket. Right now for instance, with our Under 19 squad about to take part in the U19 World Cup, there are no player profiles under the Under 19 linked page (although Maninder Aulakh is featured on the main Under 19 page).

I was also alerted to a new Canadian cricket blog by Murtaza Malik. This is a nicely designed site on a Wordpress platform, featuring some interesting material. Again keep an eye on this new venture to see if the challenge of keeping things current is met.
The blog can be found at
Canada Cricket HQ

Dave Liverman (former Canadian Cricket Association web master, 1999-2004)

Cricket Canada press release

Cricket Canada is pleased to release Phase I of a significant marketing initiative for 2010 centering around a revamped multimedia rich online experience and the GO Cricket GO Canada campaign.

The project managed by Titan GSG and utilizing the existing CricketStar framework begins an exciting new step for CC as every effort is made to leverage the global reach of the Internet to bring the Cricket Canada brand to every corner of the country and beyond.

Building upon the successful launch of CC's Facebook group for the 2009 ICC CWC Qualifier and leveraging the increasing popularity of additional social networking clients, look for regularly posted photo, audio, and video content on popular sites such as Twitter and Flickr.

Follow all of Canada's national squads as they participate in training camps and international competition from around the globe.

Bookmark us at www.gocricketgocanada.com


Asim Butt of Scotland passes away (Scotsman) -- Posted Saturday, December 5 2009
Asim Butt of Scotland played several times against Canada, and was one of their stars during the 2001 ICC Trophy

Fond memories of a fine team man

Published Date: 05 December 2009
FORMER Scotland cricket captain Craig Wright pays tribute to his international team-mate Asim Butt, who died this week at the age of 42

ASIM Butt was Pakistani by birth, but he was a very much loved adopted Scot, and served Corstorphine, Stewart's Melville and Heriot's cricket clubs with great distinction, in addition to playing 71 times for Scotland.

I first met "Butty" when he made his debut for the national team on 2 May 1998 against a star-studded Yorkshire team, which was also only my second game for Scotland. I was the 582nd player to play for Scotland, he was the 583rd. In the following years, he became not only a valued team mate, but a friend, and can lay claim to creating my nickname, Lumboo, which apparently means "tall person" in Hindi. He had an infectious, almost childlike sense of humour and a mischievous smile which normally showed he was up to some sort of prank or wind-up. In short, he was a fantastic guy to have in the team, both on and off the field.

His record for Scotland was excellent as a strike bowler, and he had the precious ability as a left armer to swing the ball back into right-handed batsmen. Built like a cruiserweight boxer, he took 106 wickets at the impressive average of 24.86. He formed a formidable opening partnership with James Brinkley in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with Azza swinging the ball one way and Brinks the other.

After falling out of favour for a couple of seasons, he returned in 2004 to take the new ball mostly with Paul Hoffmann, and they were the bowling foundations on which our Intercontinental Cup success of that year was built.

In fact, his golden period in a Scotland shirt was during that competition, where he took nine wickets at Clontarf in a must-win game against Ireland, then a further five in the final as we beat Canada at Sharjah. This included a spell of 4 for 10 (two bowled and two lbw) as we reduced the Canadians to 24 for 8 in their second innings. When he swung the ball as he did in this game, he was close to unplayable. Another notable performance was against Australia in the 1999 World Cup when he took 1 for 21 from his 10 overs.

His batting record of 320 runs at an average of 9.41 probably does not accurately reflect his ability, for he was a destructive hitter, and had the ability to strike the ball a long way. Indeed, we occasionally sent him in at the top of the order as a pinch hitter. One of the few highlights of Scotland's World Cup match in 1999 against the West Indies (we were bowled out for 68) was Asim hitting fast bowler Reon King a long way out of Leicester's Grace Road ground. This was an act of belligerence typical of the man.

The circumstances which signalled the end of his international career were extremely unfortunate, and he always insisted he did not knowingly take the class A substance for which he was banned. He would never have claimed to be an angel, but he was a loving father of three who worked long hours to support his family.

Asim called me out the blue a couple of years ago and said: "Lumboo, I am in the hospital, I have had a brain haemorrhage." For a split second I thought it was one of his wind-ups, but I quickly realised this was not something anyone would joke about. After asking how he was, I enquired when this had happened. "Yesterday," he said. "I am fine!" This was typical of his positive nature, and reflected the strength of character forged in his tough upbringing in Pakistan and in building a new life in Scotland.

Like the fighter he was, he had apparently recovered fully from this previous health issue, and was looking extremely fit the last time I saw him. He even turned out for Heriot's in their play-off match against Forfarshire at the end of last season, and was continually threatening to make a full-time comeback to the Heriot's side. That of course is not to be, after he passed away last Monday during a visit to see family in his birthplace of Lahore. But I will fondly remember Asim, as, I am sure, will everyone who came across him during his time in Scottish cricket.


Canada’s youth cricketers step up training regimen (Share) -- Posted Friday, December 4 2009
http://www.sharenews.com/
By RON FANFAIR

Most of the Canadian youth cricket team's members preparing for next month's youth World Cup in New Zealand have been engaged in strength and agility training indoors for the past two months.

As the tournament nears, the preparation will intensify with the squad traveling to St. Kitts next week for three practice matches and a rigorous training camp. The local players will meet the West Indies youth team, which is also preparing for the competition, in two matches on December 14 and 16 and a St. Kitts Under-23 side on December 20.

The tour runs December 11-21.

"This will be a hard camp," predicts national youth coach, Wilbert Plummer. "We hope to get in as much work as we can under the sun every day that we are there. I can assure you there will be no off days and the players will be pushed to the limit to be ready to compete against the best in their age limit."

Plummer said right-handed opening batsman/left-arm orthodox spinner Hiral Patel and fast bowler Maninder Aulakh, who spent the past few weeks training in Sri Lanka, and all-rounder Darius D'Souza who is attending school in England, will join the squad in St. Kitts.

"They will come back here early next week and leave with us for the Caribbean," he said. "It's critical that we have all our players together to be engaged in the workouts and also to build team chemistry."

Kittitian-born Cricket Canada senior development officer Ingleton Liburd collaborated with the West Indies Cricket Board to arrange the camp and practice matches.

"The West Indies team will be on the island from December 11 to 19, so we thought it would be good if we could get our players down there to train at the same time and also meet the Caribbean cricketers in a few games," Liburd said.

British-based fielding coach, Julien Fountain, a former English baseball player who has worked part-time with the West Indies, Pakistan and England cricket teams and who recently applied for a job with the Indian Cricket Board, and Canadian physiotherapist Candice Thomas, who has been with the youth side for the past six weeks, will also be in St. Kitts with the squad.

Canada's youth team will spend the Christmas holiday with their families before leaving on January 2 for the International Cricket Council's Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand.

The national side will play practice matches on January 6 and 8 in Auckland before traveling to Christchurch to meet South Africa on January 11 and Hong Kong a day later in warm-up games.

Canada begins play in the Under-19 World Cup tournament on January 15 against Zimbabwe. The national side will then oppose host country New Zealand a day later and Sri Lanka on January 18.