ICC WCL Division 1 Starts in Netherlands Today
National pride and personal gain will be at stake when some of the best nations and players get set to compete in the ICC World Cricket League Division 1, in hopes of securing the top prize. The competition will be held in the Netherlands today, 1st July 2010.
Ireland will be desperate to defend their title against former champions Kenya, while runners-up Canada take on the spirited Afghans and Scotland will take on hosts Netherlands. The 18 matches of the tournament have One Day International status and will be played at venues accredited by the ICC, such as VCC in Voorburg, VRA at Amstelveen and VOC in Rotterdam.
The successor of the ICC 6 Nations Challenge, the ICC World Cricket League Division was first held in 2007. It is a tournament which involves the best associate partners of the International Cricket Council. The countries that qualified were Kenya, Bermuda, Scotland, Netherlands, Canada and Ireland. Kenya had the honor of hosting and winning the ICC World Cricket League Division 2007, beating Scotland by 8 wickets in the final. The tournament is undoubtedly the second level of international Test cricket played below the top 10 playing countries and is seen as a sort of warm-up for the Cricket World Cup.
Apart from players aiming to confirm a place in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, there is young talent hoping to impress. Five players, James Kamande and Alex Obanda of Kenya, Zuiderent of the Netherlands, Canada’s Sunil Dhaniram and Ireland’s Kevin O’Brien are all hoping to complete 1000 One Day International runs, an impressive feat.
Scotland’s Neil McCallum is only two matches away from becoming the One Day International player for his country. Having previously played 35 ODI’s he will beat Gavin Hamilton’s previous record of 36 ODI’s by playing in the second match of the tournament.
Most of the younger players impressed selectors in the ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup 2010, held in New Zealand earlier this year. From Ireland, Andrew Balbirine, George Dockrell, Craig Young, James Hall and Stirling and Canadian Path Desai, Hiral Patel and Nitish Kumar are eager to show they are qualified to handle high pressure situations.
In addition to the experience they will gain, they will also stand the chance to be selected in the squads for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, which takes place from 19th of February to the 2nd of April, provided they impress the selectors.
Hosts Netherlands are hoping to follow in 2007 winners Kenya footsteps by winning on home ground. Captain Peter Borren said in an official statement, “It is a home tournament and obviously, at the back of our minds is the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 but at this stage the most important thing is to win the tournament,” He added, “We have to win games of cricket and let’s try to put 100 overs of quality cricket together.
It’s always a challenge and it will be the same for all the teams here. I have no doubt that at times during this tournament we’ll see some fantastic innings played by the Netherlands top six or seven batsmen. I also have no doubts that at times our bowling will be sharp.”
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