Canada / Andrew Hughes / 08 February 2011 /

Cosmopolitan Canada go to the World Cup with high hopes and their captain has even talked of reaching the quarter-finals. But realistically, beating fellow minnows Kenya is likely to be the limit of their achievement.

For some teams, like India, anything less than a final appearance is failure. For others, making the semis is a must. But for teams like Canada, even reaching the quarter finals would be an astonishing feat. To do that, they will have to beat their fellow minnows Kenya, upset the odds against Zimbabwe and then somehow pull off a victory against one of the Test playing nations. It is an unlikely scenario. A more modest target of two Group stage wins would represent a successful tournament.

The problem is that they go into this event lacking some key players. The Canadian selectors have behaved with the same wilful eccentricity that used to characterise the selection policies of Test nations in the days when amateurs ran the show. Two of the country's best and most experienced batsmen, Geoff Barnett and Ian Billcliff were inexplicably left out of the squad, a decision that initially caused veteran star John Davison to threaten to withdraw out of solidarity.

The team itself is a remarkably cosmopolitan one, something of a United Nations of cricket, drawing on immigrants from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Australia and Jamaica and including only three players born in Canada. Morale is good and the team had a reasonable showing in the recent Caribbean Twenty20 tournament, where they beat English Twenty20 champions Hampshire. And it is reasonable to assume that the presence of so many South Asian born players will be an advantage in adjusting to conditions. But they simply aren't good enough to make an impact, particularly without the experienced Billcliff and Barnett.

The captain - Ashish Bagai

Canada's Delhi-born captain is also their most reliable batsman and a dependable wicket keeper. A solid middle order bat who accumulates steadily and plays the anchor role, he will hold the innings together whilst Canada's several stroke players do their thing. This will be his third World Cup and he will be hoping to taste success in the country of his birth.

The Legend - John Davison
The definition of the all round cricketer, Davison is now the wrong side of 40 but has kept himself in remarkably good shape. He gives the ball a fair whack; at one time held the record for the fastest ever World Cup century; bowls tidy off spin and remains one of the best fielders in the squad. A former Victoria and South Australia player, Davison is a Canadian cricket legend and an inspiration to his team-mates.

The Slogger - Rizwan Cheema
Another all-rounder and an even more powerful hitter than Davison, Cheema scores big quickly or holes out on the boundary. He appears to relish taking on top class international bowlers, having hit both Shoaib Akhtar and Jerome Taylor for six and if he gets his eye in, he could really set things up nicely for the middle order. And as a welcome bonus, he can contribute some tidy medium pace bowling too.

The Baby - Parth Desai
Not the youngest member of Canada's squad, that honour going to the much-hyped 16 year old Nitish Kumar, but the diminutive Desai is certainly the smallest. A left-armer in the Monty Panesar mould, he is hopeless with the bat and a liability in the field, but he is Canada's best slow bowler and will be vital on these pitches. Accurate and attack-minded, he is the most potent wicket-taking threat in the squad.

Best Bet

Asish Bagai to be top Canadian batsman at [5.0]

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