Squads and match schedule announced for ICC World Cricket League Division 3
- Match officials also announced for Oman tournament
The International Cricket Council today announced the match schedule of the ICC World Cricket League Division 3, and also confirmed the six squads as well as match officials for the event that will be played across two Oman venues from 9 to 19 November.
Oman will host an ICC event for the very first time and will face Kenya at the Oman Club (OC) Turf 1 on the opening day, while in the other opening day fixture Uganda will take on Denmark at the Oman Club (OC) Turf 2 .
The USA will play their first match on day two against Uganda at OC Turf 1, whilst Singapore will open their account at OC Turf 2 against hosts Oman on 10 November.
Meanwhile, all six teams have relied on experience and in form players in their quest to claim one of the top two available spots, which will take them to the ICC World Cricket League Division 2 in Namibia between 18-28 April, on their journey to the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 qualification.
Oman and Kenya, who were relegated to Division 3 after finishing fifth and sixth respectively in the ICC World Cricket League Division 2 in Namibia in February 2018, will be looking to bounce back instantly. The hosts have batter Khawar Ali, who scored 170 runs in six matches, and bowler Bilal Khan, who took 17 wickets at an average of 10.76, in their last outings in an ICC World Cricket League tournament.
Kenya have an experienced bowler in Nelson Odhiambo, who took seven wickets for his team in Division 2 in February 2018, and Dhiren Gondaria, who scored 167 runs in seven matches in that event.
Singapore and USA had retained their places in Division 3 following their finish in the last edition of the same tournament in Uganda in 2017.
Singapore have kept faith with two of their best performers from the Uganda tournament, Anish Paraam, who totaled 190 runs from the six matches, and Anantha Krishna, who took 10 wickets across the tournament. Both the players will be looking to repeat the same performances.
Steven Taylor is back for the USA following his 126 runs and 10 wickets in Uganda 2017. Bowler Nosthush Kenjige, who took seven wickets, has also been named in the squad for the Oman tournament.
Uganda and Denmark, who were promoted from the ICC World Cricket League Division 4 2018 in Malaysia, will be hoping to climb the ladder once more. Uganda welcome back Hamu Kayondo, who scored 179 runs in six matches, and Irfan Muhammad, who took 15 wickets at an average of 9.60, in their most recent World Cricket League exploits.
In May, top performers for the Danes will be looking to do the same in Oman. Saif Ahmad, who took 10 wickets, will be a key asset for the Europeans, while captain Hamid Shah will be a batter to watch-out for after having scored 179 runs in five matches with an average of 59.66 in the Division 4 event.
Lastly, the Playing Control Team for the tournament will be led by V Narayana Kutty from India, who has been appointed as the ICC Tournament Referee. The Mentor Umpire, Sri Lanka’s Lyndon Hannibal, will be joined by two Nepalese umpires Buddhi Pradhan and Vinay Kumar Jha. The remaining umpiring responsibilities will be shared between the UAE’s Akbar Ali Khan and Iftikhar Ali and Rahul Asher from Oman.
TOURNAMENT MATCHESFriday, 9 November - Oman v Kenya, OC Turf 1; Uganda v Denmark, OC Turf 2
Saturday, 10 November - USA v Uganda, OC Turf 1; Oman v Singapore, OC Turf 2
Monday, 12 November – Kenya v USA, OC Turf 1; Denmark v Singapore, OC Turf 2
Tuesday, 13 November – Oman v Denmark, OC Turf 1; Uganda v Kenya, OC Turf 2
Thursday, 15 November – Singapore v Uganda, OC Turf 1; Denmark v USA, OC Turf 2
Friday, 16 November – USA v Uganda, OC Turf 1; Kenya v Singapore, OC Turf 2
Sunday, 18 November - Kenya v Denmark, OC Turf 1; Oman v Uganda OC Turf 2
Monday, 19 November – Singapore v USA, OC Turf 1
All matches start at 9.30am local time.
SQUADS
DENMARK: Hamid Shah (captain), Jonas Henriksen, Taranjit Singh Bharaj, Saif Ahmad, Anique Uddin, Bashir Shah, Zameer Khan, Nicolaj Damgaard, Anders Bulow, Mads Henriksen, Jino Jojo
KENYA: Collins Obuya (captain), Dhiren Gondaria, Shem Ngoche, Rakep Patel, Irfan Karim, Alex Obanda, Pushpak Kerai, Gurdeep Singh, Emmanuel Bundi, Sachin Bhudia, Nelson Odhiambo, Nehemiah Odhiambo, Lucas Oluoch, Elijah Otieno
OMAN: Zeeshan Maqsood (captain), Jatinder Singh, Aaqib Sulehri, Suraj Kumar, Khawar Ali, Muhammad Nadeem, Mehran Khan, Jay Odedra, Bilal Khan, Ahmad Butt, Kaleemullah Mahmood, Sufyan Mohammed, Baadal Singh, Nester Dhamba
SINGAPORE: Chetan Suryawanshi (captain), Aahan Gopinath Achar, Rezza Gaznavi, Amjad Mahboob, Anantha Krishna, Anish Edward Paraam, Aritra Dutta, Sidhant, Janak Prakash, Arjun Mutreja, Manpreet Singh, Karthik Subramanian, Rohan Rangarajan, Abhiraj Rajdeep Singh
UGANDA: Brian Masaba (captain), Arnold Otwani, Dinesh Nakrani, Bilal Hassun, Roger Mukasa, Hamu Kayondo, Ronak Patel, Henry Ssenyondo, Frank Nsubuga, Charles Waiswa, Irfan Muhammad, Kenneth Waiswa, Deusdedit Muhumuza. Riazat Ali Shah
USA: Saurabh Netravalkar (captain), Jaskaran Malhotra, Nisarg Patel, Steven Taylor, Alex Amsterdam, Jan Nisar Khan, Roy Silva, Monank Patel, Timil Patel, Aaron Jones, Hayden Walsh Jr., Elmore Hutchinson, Muhammad Ali Khan, Nosthush Kenjige
(Teams can make changes to their squads without needing an ICC approval until 7 November. All player replacement requests from 7 November onwards will require the approval of the Event Technical Committee.)
TOURNAMENT REFEREE: V Narayanan Kutty
MENTOR UMPIRE: Lyndon Hannibal
UMPIRES: Akbar Ali Khan, Iftikhar Ali, Rahul Asher, Vinay Kumar Jha, Buddhi Pradhan