The Landscape of Associate/Emerging cricket has been in much action since the start of 2018, with the recently concluded ICC WCL Division 2 confirming the final 2 participants in the 10-nation ICC World Cup Qualifiers, to be held in Mar 2018 in Zimbabwe.
Much has been talked about the countries and their chances in the World Cup Qualifiers, the players and their expectations ahead of the tournament about their World Cup dreams, how the landscape of Associate (Emerging) nations would be post the Qualifiers, but the next few weeks will be equally special for 10 men, who are leaving nothing to chance as they prepare their teams for the battle ahead for World Cup glory.
The journey of the 10 coaches, who will be looking to get their respective teams into the main draw of World Cup, has been treading on different paths leading upto this tournament and while for some, it’ll be a chance for showing that they still belong with the elite group of World Cricket, for the others, it’ll be about showing the world that what a lot could be achieved with so little available to develop the game in the respective nations.
It makes a difference, the coaching staff along with the Head coach, and it’s their vision and approach along with the ones of the captains and senior members of the squad, that makes up the core of the team’s strength and use them to the best of abilities on the field.
It gets tougher when the coaches get only few weeks/months on their hands to prepare the teams for such important tournaments. For guys like Joe Dawes (Papua New Guinea), Graham Ford (Ireland) & Phil Simmons (Afghanistan), it’s more about knowing how the team has been performing with their current set-up’s and providing specific player roles based on video evidence and player one-on-one’s to know about their skills and shortcomings.
Stuart Law (West Indies) and Heath Streak (Zimbabwe) will come to the tournament knowing that inability to claim the two qualification spots on offer in the Qualifiers, will have severe implications on the future of the sport in their respective regions in terms of growth of domestic players and structure & it’s administration.
Grant Bradburn (Scotland), Dougie Brown (UAE), Ryan Campbell (Netherlands), Simon Cook (Hong Kong) and Jagat Tamatta (Nepal) have been around with their teams for a while now and have a fair understanding of the dynamics of the players and the team culture. Their main objective will be to extract the best out of their players in pressure situations with focus on the younger members of the squad, who may very well get intimidated by the big match occasions.
Simmons and Streak were involved in the recent bi-lateral series in the UAE, while Ford, Campbell and Cook are preparing for practice games against each other in Pretoria, South Africa. Bradburn will join the trio soon as Scotland also play warm-up’s against the three.
Stuart Law is busy making his notes as Windies players are currently taking part in CWI Super50 regionals. Dawes and the Barramundis are currently in Brisbane for their preparations.
Brown and Tamatta have earned well deserved “short” break before heading back to Zimbabwe. All 10 teams will get to play two official warm-up matches before the proper tournament begins and for all the 10 coaches, these matches will provide the final solutions to any shortcomings or loopholes heading into the main draw, where there will be no room for experimentation or complacency.
Two men will be standing tall at the end of the World Cup Qualifiers. Who those two will be?? It’s anybody’s guess. Let’s get ready to witness hard core cricket action for all age-groups shortly!!
