All the ten (10) participating teams in the 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier have got the ground running after the first round of official warm-up matches took place on 13th June 2023. With the second and final warm-up matches set to take place on 15th before the start of the main tournament from the 18th, players know that they are in the thick of things now and have to start soaking up the atmosphere and get ready for one of the most cut-throat competition in an ICC pathway program system.
Aasif Sheikh hopes Nepal can build on the momentum from their dramatic progress to the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2023 when the action begins in Zimbabwe. “It was unbelievable to get through to the Qualifier. Winning 11 matches out of 12 was unexpected, to be honest. It was a team effort, everyone has contributed. I feel like we are on a great journey with our cricket and we are really excited for the qualifiers. So many of the matches we have played previously in League Two have been so close and we fought really well in those matches, so they will give us some confidence.”
“The support we got in Nepal was unbelievable, we had so many people in the crowd for the final game. We are going to miss the crowd but we know that from Nepal they are going to support us. It doesn’t matter wherever we play, we know the Nepali people are with us, they will be cheering for us from Nepal.”
“Looking at the qualifiers, we believe that if we play quality cricket, we believe that we are going to win most of the matches. It is just about playing the best cricket on the day. We believe that if we play our best cricket on that day, we are going to win.”
Aqib Ilyas hopes to hit the ground running on his ODI return as Oman attempt to secure their place at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup for the first time. “As a batter, I have to score runs. Having an average of almost 60 in the last 17 or 18 games is great but that is in the past now and I have to score again. Hopefully, I will get that confidence and if I get runs in the tournament then we have to believe we can win against anyone.”
“It is the same for my bowling, as I am now taking wickets too. We know though that giving our best will take us to a big tournament and the big stage. We believe we have a good chance because we have some good players in the side – Zeeshan Maqsood, Jatinder Singh and then myself coming into the team. We will give everything we have to qualify for the top six and then for the top two.”
“We have played all of these teams before. We did not play an ODI series with Sri Lanka, but we played some 50-over games against them and we won a game and we lost a game. It was really good because we now have an idea of playing them and we have faced the same bowlers.”
“The good thing is we have played against each other a lot of times and we know how to prepare, there are many slight margins where we lost to them, so we can come up with more positives. We are feeling good for the qualifiers, we are practicing well, there are some great coaches here and the new guys coming in did really well in the Asia Cup qualifiers. They scored really well, the top order clicked and all the bowlers did really well too.”
George Munsey believes Scotland’s recent giant-killing exploits means they will be seen as a force to be reckoned with at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier. “Representing Scotland in a qualifying process, it does not really get much better. We are the slight underdogs but I know for a fact that these other teams are not taking us lightly. That is something that we have learnt from playing these bigger teams and beating these bigger teams on the world stage.”
“It is something we are all very excited about. Just look at the World Cup itself, it is only 10 teams, so we are fighting with the best of the best and that is something to be proud of. We went to South Africa on this pre-camp and one of the players spoke of this ‘pinch yourself’ moment. We have a great opportunity in our group, it is very competitive and obviously each team will be looking to get through the group.”
“There are no easy games that is for sure, but I am confident in the guys that we brought over to get the job done and there are some exciting fixtures to look forward to as well, which is always nice.”
“You probably don’t really recognize what you are doing at the time (scoring a century during CWC League 2) because it is our job to go out there and score the runs or take the wickets for your country. I would like to do that again, hit the qualifying stage and be a big part of this campaign.”
