January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
Canada will give young players a good test
It's a big step up for a lot of the guys but we have to put up a good show. Canada, along with Bermuda, are one of the lower ranked associates.
We are not going to come up against any team weaker than this in one-day-internationals.
Not to say that it will be easy. Canada has some very good players and there are no easy matches.
We have a lot of young talent but they are learning their skills on the job. They all have to learn real fast with the World Cup qualifier in Dubai less than a year away.
A lot depends on how our experienced players like Irving Romaine and Sluggo perform. Irving is the captain, he has played at this level for a long time now, and he will have to take a lot of the responsibility with the bat.
I would also count Stephen Outerbridge and Jekon Edness as senior players in this team. They are not youngsters any more and they have been around the squad for a long time. They are away at a cricket school playing against county players on a regular basis. They have to be leading the team - that's why they are out there.
Canada have retained a few players from the World Cup but they have also brought in a lot of new Indian and Pakistani players.
They appointed Zubin Sarkari as their captain this week and this is the first time they have had someone who was born in Canada as their skipper.
He's a good opening batsman and he has been around the team for a long time but he has missed quite a lot of cricket through illness.
They also still have players like Ashish Bagai, Henry Osinde and Sunil Dhaniram who have played very well against us in the past.
Good result
I think a good result for us on this tour would be to win one of the ODIs and to maybe get a draw in the four-day game.
We've been out of competitive international cricket, apart from one 20-20 game, since the Kenya tour last year.
There are more important things to achieve than winning the matches this weekend. It's more important that they play collectively as a unit and do what's required - build partnerships, put the ball in the right area.
As the games go on they will get better but to start off with it could be very difficult.
Who's missing
Everyone knows that for various reasons there are a lot of top players not with the national squad. Just for fun, this week, I've picked a squad that could play against the current national squad in a three-match-series. If someone put up some prize money and asked me to pick a squad, this is who I'd go for:
Lionel Cann, Dion Stovell, Glen Blakeney, OJ Pitcher, Charlie Marshall, Janeiro Tucker, Delyone Borden, Malachi Jones, Kevin Hurdle, Hasan Durham, Traddie Simpson, Jacobi Robinson, Arthur Pitcher, Justin Pitcher.[[In-content Ad]]
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