TORONTO - Canada will be relying on two teenage opening batsmen and just three tournament veterans at next month's Cricket World Cup.
Wicketkeeper Ashish Bagai will captain the 15-man squad, which includes fellow 2007 World Cup returnees Henry Osinde and Australia-based John Davison.
The 14-team tournament opens Feb. 19 and runs through April 2 in India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.
Canada is in Pool A with Australia, Kenya, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe and opens Feb. 20 against co-host Sri Lanka in Hambantota.
The top four will advance out of the pool into the knockout stage.
The Canadian team is characterized by youth with Nitish Kumar, Ruvindu Gunasekera, Parth Desai and Hiral Patel all members of the under-19 squad.
"They are highly talented but they haven't gone into a big event like this," head coach Pubudu Dassanayake told The Canadian Press on Thursday from Barbados where the team is talking part in the Caribbean Twenty20 competition.
"But I have all the confidence that we will go and do well there."
At the last World Cup, the average age of the Canadian team as about 33, according to Dassanayake. This time, it's around 24.
"It's quite a young team and want to show the world there's a good future for Canada in cricket."
"Over the last couple of years, we've invested quite a bit in these players," added Ravin Moorthy, Cricket Canada's vice-president of high performance management. "They've played some good cricket all over the world. We believe they're ready for this level."
Kumar, 16, and Patel, 19, will serve as Canada's opening batsmen.
Osinde, Khurram Chohan, Harvir Baidwan and Rizwan Cheema lead Canada's pace bowling attack. The spinners are Davison, Desai and Balaji Rao.
"It's a well-balanced bowling department and these bowlers are really built for the Asian conditions," said Dassanayake.
The Canadian selection process has been marred by controversy over the omission of veteran batsmen Geoff Barnett and Ian Billcliff, both based in New Zealand.
Cricket Canada said they were not picked because they had not been available for pre-tournament events, an explanation that prompted Davison to seek clarification.
It's a topic team officials would clearly like to leave behind them.
"They've been in and out of the team for a while," said Dassanayake.
"They were among the key members but the decision was from the selection panel. They make the final decision. I have to go with that," he added.
Moorthy acknowledged that the matter could have been dealt with better.
"We probably could have handled it a little bit differently on our end as to how we went about announcing that. But the president (Ranjit Saini) stepped in and had some good conversations with John and we had some correspondence with him. And once that was done, John made himself available for selection."
The 40-year-old Davison, who was born in B.C. but grew up in Australia, is a key member of the Canadian team.
At the 2003 World Cup, he scored the quickest century in tournament history, collecting 111 from 76 balls against the West Indies. He also posted the third-fastest 50, scoring 75 from 62 balls, against New Zealand.
Canada named a 16-man squad rather than the mandated 15 because it is awaiting word on citizenship for Jamaican-born Tyson Gordon, who has lived in Edmonton the last 3 1/2 years.
If Gordon's paperwork is completed in time, Hamza Tariq will drop out of the squad. But Tariq will travel with the team as reserve wicketkeeper and could see action if Bagai gets injured.
"It's kind of a race against time because he wasn't able to apply until the first week of December for his citizenship," Moorthy said from Calgary.
"The indication we have is pretty positive but it's difficult for us just to come out and say 'Yes, he's going to get it,' or 'No, he's not.' There's a lot of factors that aren't in our control at the moment. We're hoping that the government sees the value in doing it."
Cricket Canada is also waiting on Indian visas for Pakistan-born Cheema, Chohan and Tariq but Moorthy says the International Cricket Council has assured them that will not be a problem.
The team leaves Jan. 26 for a pre-tournament training camp in Dubai before heading to Bangladesh on Feb. 8 for tune-up matches against Bangladesh and England.
Canada's record is a combined 1-11 at three World Cups.
Canada finished 15th out of 16 teams at the 2007 tournament when it went 0-3 and failed to advance out of its pool.
Canada
Ashish Bagai (capt.), Rizwan Cheema (vice-capt.), Harvir Baidwan, Khurram Chohan, John Davison, Parth Desai, Tyson Gordon, Ruvindu Gunasekera, Amabhir Hansra, Nitish Kumar, Henry Osinde, Hiral Patel, Balaji Rao, Zubin Surkari, Hamza Tariq, Karl Whatham.
Head coach: Pubudu Dassanayake.
Assistant coach: Chandika Hathurusingha.
