Canada captain wants more games against Test sides

John Davison, the Canada captain, has suggested the top two associate members of the ICC play the bottom two Test teams in order to improve their play. "That gives the associate teams an opportunity to perform well over a period of time," Davison told AFP. "A couple of associate sides have played very well against Test teams and if something like that happens it will be great."

Davison, who plays Sydney grade cricket, said Canada had been talking of beating Kenya and being competitive against England and New Zealand. "We played Kenya recently and won one and lost one," he said. "You never know if things go your way, like Bangladesh beating New Zealand [in a warm-up game] recently.

"If you play well and the other team plays poorly, you never know and so it will be a great result if we get through the next round. But I will be happy if we beat Kenya and be competitive against the two Test-playing nations." Canada's first match of the World Cup is against Kenya on March 14 at the Beausejour Stadium in St Lucia.

Davison said a repeat of his fine World Cup 2003 performance - he hit the fastest World Cup century - looked unlikely as the wickets in West Indies were not conducive to fast scoring. Davison got his hundred from 67 balls against West Indies in a group match at Centurion. In the same tournament he smashed the third-fastest World Cup half-century against New Zealand at Benoni.

"It surprised me, but I was happy to get the fastest hundred on the big stage," Davison said. "A big smile came on my face. It was unbelievable because of the quality of cricketers we played against. It was a beautiful batting track at Centurion."

He said this World Cup would be a tougher challenge as he had little in the form of match practice ahead of the tournament. "Before the last World Cup, I had been playing first-class cricket in Australia. This time, I have been playing only club cricket for the past two years. So, it will be a bigger challenge."