THE Pepsi International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cricket League (WCL) Division Six Championship started Sunday in Jersey with Nigeria hoping to be among the two countries to gain promotion to Division Five of the league.
Hosts, Jersey, Nigeria, Bahrain, Vanuatu, Argentina and Kuwait are the teams battling for the two promotion slots in the championship.
Looking forward to a successful competition, Nigeria’s Manager, Olisa Egwuatu, said in fast bowler, Akolade Saheed and batsman, Oladotun Olatunji, the country has players that can lead it to success in Jersey.
Speaking during the leaders’ conference Sunday, Egwuatu said the Nigerian team is going into the competition with three objectives in mind.
“First, we want to stay in Division 6. This is the minimum we want to achieve,’ he said. “Second, we want to qualify for WCL Division 5. And third, we want to win the trophy.”
Nigeria met Vanuatu, who last played in Jersey in 2008 in WCL Division 5, at Les Quennevais in their first game, in what was a replay of the WCL Division 7 final played in Botswana earlier this year.
Vanuatu’s Captain, Andrew Mansale said before the game that his side was looking forward to the challenge of playing on turf wickets.
“We’ve had three warm-up games, two against Bahrain and one against a Sussex academy side. We don’t usually play on grass wickets back home so this will be a good experience for our side.”
Also speaking on his team’s expectations, Jersey’s Skipper, Peter Gough, said their ultimate goal is to move to Division Five.
The hosts, who finished fourth in WCL Division 6 in Malaysia in 2011 and who bring a youthful side to this tournament, kick off their campaign against Kuwait at Grainville.
Gough said that he was excited about the tournament and pleased with his team’s preparations. “We played in the ICC European Division 1 Championship in Sussex last week and we have had a programme of 17 games throughout the year,’ he said.
“We have played MCC, Middlesex, Club Cricket Conference in the UK and a T20 tournament in Holland. Our cricket has mainly been T20 in the last month so we’ll be looking forward to going back to 50 overs. I think it suits our side better, particularly some of our batters.”
To Kuwait’s Captain, off-spinning all-rounder Hisham Mirza, his side, which had also enjoyed a good warm-up tour in the UK, expected a high standard of cricket in the week ahead.
“We aren’t targeting any specific opposition,’ he said. ‘We’re just going to take it match-by-match. This is Division 6 so there are lots of strong teams here.”
Argentina met Bahrain at FB Fields in their first fixture, with Argentinian Manager, Martin Sacchetti, confident in the young blood brought into the team. “We have two young players to watch out for,’ he said. ‘Lautaro Musiani, a leg-break bowler and number 3 batsman, and Hernan Fennell, a medium pacer, who are both coming through nicely and playing well.”
Bahrain comes into the tournament looking to bounce back from relegation from WCL Division 5 in 2012. Adil Hanif, their vice-captain, said they had a well-balanced side that was ready to compete. ‘We have a good mix of seamers and spinners and we hope to adapt to the conditions quickly.’