The next step to ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 begins on Saturday
The next step to the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 begins this Saturday in Singapore with six teams competing in the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 6 (WCL Div. 6).
The hosts will begin the tournament as favourites, although it is hard to predict who will finish in the top two and gain promotion to Division 5 due to be held in Nepal in February next year. The other teams taking part in the tournament are a diverse bunch, namely Bahrain, Botswana, Guernsey, Malaysia and Norway.
The matches are to be hosted on three grounds for the tournament - Kalang, Singapore Cricket Club (SCC) and the Indian Association.
Singapore coach and former Australia player Trevor Chappell is confident his side can do the business.
"I think we're fairly confident for this event, particularly since we're the home side," he said. "However, we can't underestimate our opposition. We only really know Malaysia as a team, and we had a look at Guernsey during its warm-up match, but we've got to concentrate on our strengths, one of which is knowing the conditions for playing here in Singapore.
"We have a strong batting line-up and I feel our bowlers have the ability to do well here."
Winner of WCL Div. 7 Bahrain is also brimming with confidence ahead of the tournament after securing a solid win against a representative Singapore Cricket Club XI.
Its coach, former Pakistan Test and ODI fast bowler Mohsin Kamal, has a good feeling about the tournament.
"We've had a good two and half months since winning the last event in Guernsey and we've come here with only two changes to the tournament winning side from Division 7," said Mohsin.
"With the humidity here it was important we came in early to acclimatise as it is different to Bahrain but I feel it won't affect us too much as a side.
"There are some good teams here, but we're only aware of Guernsey who we played in Division 7 so all the other matches will be new to us but we're confident we can make the grade and win promotion to the next division."
Fellow WCL Div. 7 qualifier Guernsey also arrived early for the tournament to acclimatise while Botswana comes into this tournament having played a series of warm-up games in Sri Lanka.
The side played two matches against the Sri Lanka Cricket Academy and one match against the Sri Lanka Western Districts U23 side.
Botswana's newly appointed captain Omar Ali is looking forward to the event and hopes the Sri Lanka tour has given the side some sort of an advantage ahead of its first game on Saturday against Norway.
Omar said: "Having been in Sri Lanka we've got used to humid conditions so it should help us here in Singapore.
"We've also faced Singapore before in Division 5 so we've got a decent knowledge of their side. However, I think the dark horses of this tournament will be the Division 7 qualifiers, Bahrain and Guernsey."
Simon Taufel from the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires and five-time winner of the Umpire of the Year at the LG ICC Awards will be one of nine umpires officiating at the event, which will be overseen by match referee Brian Aldridge.
The full schedule and teams for the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 6 is as follows:
Fixtures
28 Aug - Practice and meetings
29 Aug - Botswana v Norway (Kalang), Singapore v Guernsey (SCC), Malaysia v Bahrain (Indian Association)
30 Aug - Bahrain v Guernsey (Kalang), Norway v Malaysia (SCC), Botswana v Singapore (Indian Association)
1 Sep - Malaysia v Botswana (Kalang), Singapore v Bahrain (SCC), Guernsey v Norway (Indian Association)
2 Sep - Norway v Singapore (Kalang), Bahrain v Botswana (SCC), Guernsey v Malaysia (Indian Association)
4 Sep - Singapore v Malaysia (Kalang), Botswana v Guernsey (SCC), Norway v Bahrain (Indian Association)
5 Sep - Final (Kalang), third/fourth-place play-off (SCC), fifth/sixth-place play-off (Indian Association)
Squads:
BAHRAIN: Yaser Sadeq (captain), Fahad Sadeq, Mirza Azeem Ul Haque, Mohammed Adil Hanif, Zafar Zaheer, Mirza Ashraf Yaqoob, Imran Sajjad, Shahzad Ahmed, Mohammad Tahir Dar Mohammed Qamar Saeed, Vivek Subramanya, Halal Abbasi, Mohammed Naeem Amin, Asghar Abdul Majeed.
BOTSWANA: Omar Ali (captain), Tshepo Mhozya, Karabo Modise, Mosa Gaolekwe, Faisal Rana Rasheed, Gaolape Mokokwe, Denzil Sequeira, Karan Kapoor, Abdul Patel, Indika Perera, James Moses, Shah Zaib Khan, Taroesh Trivedi, Noor Ahmad, Vanesh Seganathirajah.
GUERNSEY: Stuart Le Prevost (captain), Lee Savident, Stuart Bisson, James Warr, Thomas Kimber, Gary Rich, Kristoffer Moherndl, Blane Queripel, James Nussbaumer, Lee Ferbrache, Ross Kneller, GH Smit, Jeremy Frith, Jonathan Warr.
MALAYSIA: Suhan Kumar Alagaratanam (captain), Ahmad Faiz Mohammad Noor, Suresh Navaratnam, Rakesh Madhavan, Muthuraman Sockalingam, Mohammad Shafiq, Mohammad Sharif, Faris Almas Lee Rosmanizam, Aminudin Ramly, Manrick Singh Varick Singh, Damith Kushan Warusavithana, Hassan Ghulam Muhammad, Thushara Prabath Kodikara, Mohammad Shukri Abdul Rahim, Muhamad Nik Azril Arifin.
NORWAY: Zaheer Ashiq (captain), Syed Munawar Ahmed, Zeeshan Muhammad Ali, Aziz Ataul, Mubasshar Ahmad Bhatti, Mohammad Shabbas Butt, Zeshan Ahmed Rauf, Shahid Ahmad, Safir Hayat, Umran Shahzad, Aamir Waheed, Iram Dawood, Adeel Ibrar, Iftakhar Hussain.
SINGAPORE: Chetan Ramchandra Suryawanshi (captain), Narender Reddy Bonguram, Munish Arora, Rohan Tripathi, Chaminda Ruwan Kumarge, Buddhika Mendia Yange Oshan, Christopher Janik, Anish Edward Param, Mohamed Shoib Abdul Razak, Mohamed Omar Mizran Faizal, Dharmichand Mulewa, Vivek Vedagiri, Saad Khan Janjua, Pramodh Raja Vijai Sri Ranga Singaraja.