Associates continue World Cup build-up

Another important tournament for three of the associate nations begins in South Africa on Sunday as Canada, Netherlands and Bermuda take part in a triangular series as part of their preparation for the World Cup.

Canada take on Netherlands in the opening game of the series at Potchefstroom and it's the first international match the Canadians have played since beating the USA by 10 wickets in King City in August.

However, four of the Canadians have been among the leading players at the recent seven-week ICC winter training camp in Pretoria. Abdool Samad and Ashish Bagai have particularly impressed the coaching staff at the camp that included Tim Boon, Rod Marsh, Kepler Wessels and Gary Kirsten.

But Canada will be without their key allrounder John Davison and main batsman Ian Billcliff. Netherlands have just completed a tough Intercontinental Cup match against Bermuda in Pretoria and, following that drawn game, they now have no chance of progressing through the group stage of that competition with Canada untouchable at the top of Group B.

David Hemp, though, enjoyed a memorable personal performance as he struck 247, the highest individual score in the history of the competition. Hemp, who was born in Bermuda but has lived for many years in the UK, is captain of Glamorgan.

Bermuda Irving Romaine, Dean Minors, Janeiro Tucker, Saleem Mukuddern, Stephen Outerbridge, Hasan Durham, Dwayne Leverock, Clay Smith, Ryan Steede, Lionel Cann, Kevin Hurdle, Kwame Tucker, Rodney Trott, Stefan Kelly, David Hemp.

Netherlands Bas Zuiderent, Tom de Groot, Eric Szwarczynski, Ryan ten Doeschate, Billy Stelling, Jeroen Smits, Luuk van Troost, Mark Jonkman, Peter Borren, Alexei Kervezee, Daan van Bunge, Pieter Seelaar, Muhammed Kashif.

Canada George Codrington, Qaiser Ali, Desmond Chumney, Sandeep Jyoti, Sunil Dhaniram, Don Maxwell, Abdool Samad, Ashish Bagai, Asif Mulla, Kevin Sandher, Umar Bhatti, Henry Osinde, Sanjay Thuraisingham.