John Davison to captain Canada against rival USA in ICC Intercontinental Cup match

Canadian World Cup hero John Davison will captain his country for the first time in its opening ICC Intercontinental Cup match against the USA in Florida beginning on Friday (28 May).

Davison dazzled the cricket world with his record breaking feats at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003, scoring the fastest century in the history of the tournament with a stunning 111 from 76 balls against the West Indies at Centurion.

The 34-year-old will make his captaincy debut against the USA - Canada's long-standing cricket rival - in the three-day ICC Intercontinental Cup match at the Brian Piccolo Park in Florida.

A new tournament, the ICC Intercontinental Cup gives leading Associate Member countries exposure to the longer version of the game. Played across four continents between March and November 2004, it is the first time a first-class competition has been staged for countries below Test match level.

The USA, meanwhile, has named an unchanged side from that which defeated Canada in their most recent clash at the ICC Six Nations Challenge in March.

That game saw the USA prevail by six wickets before going on to win the tournament and qualify for the ICC Champions Trophy in England this September.

Davison, who did not play in the ICC Six Nations Challenge, said he was looking forward to taking on the USA and atoning for Canada's defeat in that tournament.

"It is an honour for me to captain Canada in this historic match between two rival nations," said Davison.

"The ICC Intercontinental Cup is a great concept which I am sure will provide some fantastic cricket and the fact the matches have been granted first-class status by the ICC makes them particularly important.

"I am looking forward to an extremely competitive match against a cricket nation that is obviously moving in the right direction."

The teams for the ICC Intercontinental Cup match are:

Canada

John Davison (Captain), Ashish Bagai, Ian Billcliffe, Manzoor Chaudhary, Desmond Chumney, Austin Codrington, Sunil Dhaniram, Haninder Dhillion, Zahid Hussain, Don Maxwell, Ashish Patel, Zubin Sukari. Coach: Rupert Gomes

USA

Richard Staple (Captain), Nasir Javed (Vice-Captain), Rohan Alexander, Aijaz Ali, Zamin Amin,

Donovan Blake, Jignesh Desai, Howard Johnson, Mark Johnson, Clayton Lambert, Steve Massiah, Charles Reid. Coach: F.Bacchus

Canada and the USA share a 160-year cricket rivalry, stretching back to their first recorded encounter in New York in 1844.

The two nations have previously met on four occasions in major ICC tournaments - at the 1982, 1986 and 2001 ICC Trophy competitions, and the recent ICC Six Nations Challenge in March - with the record standing at 2-2.

The ICC Intercontinental Cup sees the top-ranked team from the matches played in each of the four regions (Asia, Africa, Europe and America) progress to the semi-finals and finals in the UAE in November.

The chance for teams to play three-day matches is a major development opportunity for players to improve and become better equipped to handle the progression to the next level of competition.

The ICC Intercontinental Cup features innovative playing conditions including a points system specifically created for the event.

Teams receive 14 points for a win plus any bonus points accumulated, while teams that draw or lose a match receive only their bonus points. Only in the event of a tie will teams pick up seven additional points.

Bonus points can be accumulated in both innings with a maximum of six batting points per innings awarded on the basis of 0.5 points for every 25 runs scored up to 300 runs. A maximum of five bowling points are available per innings allocated at 0.5 points per wicket taken.

To encourage teams to play for a result, the first innings of each side is restricted to 90 overs unless the team batting first does not use its 90 overs in which case the team batting second can bat for its 90 overs plus the overs short of 90 not used by the team batting first.

A minimum of 105 overs must be bowled on the opening two days of the match.

Three matches have so far been completed in the ICC Intercontinental Cup. Nepal drew with hosts the UAE in March, with the home side earning 18 points to Nepal's 14.

In April, Nepal bounced back from its first-up loss to defeat Malaysia by nine wickets and receive 27.5 points, while Malaysia earned 9.5 points.

Uganda collected 32 points to lead the African regional table after defeating Namibia by five wickets, while the hosts received 16 points.

The ICC Intercontinental Cup is part of the High Performance arm of the ICC's Development Program launched in 1997 to develop cricket as a global sport.

Since its inception, the Development Program has helped the number of ICC members increase by over 40 in the past seven years. The ICC now has 89 member countries; 10 Full, 27 Associate and 52 Affiliate members.