Seniors off to Spain for European Div 3 tournament

The Israel senior squad travels to Spain early Sunday to participate in the ICC Europe Division 3 Championships. The team meets Belgium in their opening game on Monday, before taking on Isle of Man, Malta, Portugal and Spain during the week. The winners of the tournament have the right to challenge Croatia for a place in next years Division 2 tournament.

Israel were forced into a late change to their squad, with wicket keeper Shailesh Bangerra called up to replace Danny Hotz. Herschel Gutman captains a young team featuring three players from the U19 squad; opening batsman Safania Nagavkar who made his debut for the senior team in the Maccabiah Games, allrounder Gabi Schachat, who became the first Israeli youth player to score an international century at the recent U19 tournament, and left handed middle order batsman Nir Dokarkar, who was in prolific form during both the Macccabiah and the U19 tournament for the youth team. Apart from those youngsters, Ramle paceman Eliezer Samson will be traveling abroad with the senior squad for the first time, whilst fast bowler Isaac Talkar, keeper Bangerra and top order batsmen Eshkol Solomon, Yaniv Razpurker and Dovi Myers have all played in European tournaments before despite being under age 30. Batsmen Adrian Vard and Raymond Aston, and allrounders David Massil and Steven Shein are all veterans of the national team with probably more than 100 international games between them, providing the experience alongside the youthful enthusiasm.

Live scores and coverage of the tournament can be found on www.icc-europe.org