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All 12 squads now confirmed for ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier

All 12 squads have now been named ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2009, which takes place in South Africa next month.

Defending champion Scotland has named a strong panel that includes the experience of proven performers such as Craig Wright, Gavin Hamilton, Neil McCallum and Colin Smith along with the more youthful talent of the likes of Durham batsman Kyle Coetzer, all-rounder Majid Haq from Paisley and 22-year-old Glaswegian batsman Navdeep Poonia.

This year's tournament promises to be a closely fought event with the top four sides qualifying for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. Apart from the Scots, the other five teams that took part in the last World Cup - Bermuda, Canada, Ireland, Kenya and the Netherlands - will be taking part along with Denmark, Namibia, Oman and United Arab Emirates from Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 2 and the two qualifiers from Division 3, Afghanistan and Uganda.

From North America, across Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, this tournament - formerly known as the ICC Trophy - brings together the best international cricketers from beyond the Full Members all gripped by the dream of playing in the world's biggest cricket event.

Day one of the event could present Scotland with its toughest test as it will come up against fierce rival Ireland in an ODI at Willowmoore Park in what will be a repeat of the final in 2005. Scotland was victorious on that occasion nearly four years ago in Dublin but Ryan Watson and his men will know the Irish will be out to make sure it doesn't happen again.

For its part, Ireland has also named a formidable line-up which is led by William Porterfield and includes heroes from the 2007 World Cup such as Trent Johnston, Boyd Rankin and Niall O'Brien as well as Middlesex batsman Eoin Morgan and Surrey's Gary Wilson.

But do not assume that those two will be fighting it out at the end as well as the beginning. Each of the other 10 countries will be hell-bent on making the last four. Other top players who will be on show include Ryan ten Doeschate (Netherlands), David Hemp (Bermuda), Ashish Bagai (Canada), Mohammad Nabi (Afghanistan), Freddie Klokker (Denmark), Thomas Odoyo (Kenya), Gerrie Snyman (Namibia), Hemal Mehta (Oman), Saqib Ali (UAE) and Junior Kwebiha (Uganda), each one of them capable of turning a game on his own.

Among the named squads are WCL Div. 3 qualifiers Afghanistan and Uganda, who add an element of the unknown for many of the more established teams who will not have seen much of those opponents prior to the start of the event on 1 April.

The 12 teams taking part in the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier are split into two groups of six teams. Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Oman, Namibia and Uganda make up Group A while Kenya, Netherlands, Bermuda, UAE, Denmark and Afghanistan form Group B.

Each side plays the other teams in its group once with the top four from the groups progressing to the Super Eight stage. The teams each play four Super Eight matches against the sides they did not meet in the group stage. All points won in the groups will be carried over to the Super Eight stage apart from those gained against the bottom two from each group.

The top two teams in the Super Eight stage will contest the final to be played at Centurion on 19 April. The third and fourth-placed sides will play-off at Potchefstroom, the fifth and sixth-placed sides play off at Willowmoore Park while the seventh and eighth-placed teams play off at Stan Friedman Oval, Krugersdorp.

The top four sides at the event qualify for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. The top six teams secure ODI status until 2013 and also qualify automatically for the ICC Intercontinental Cup 2009-10.

The bottom two teams from the CWCQ, which incorporates Divisions 1 and 2 of the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League, will be relegated to Division 3.

The named squads are:

Afghanistan:

Norooz Mangal (captain), Khaleqdaad Noori, Karim Sadiq, Mohammad Nabi, Hasti Gul, Rais Ahmadzai, Dawlat Ahmadzai, Mohammad Shehzad, Hamid Hassan, Samiullah Shinwari, Riffatullah Momand, Noor Ali, Asghar Stanikzai, Shahpoor Zadran, Shafiqullah Shafaq.

Bermuda:

Irving Romaine (captain), David Hemp, Chris Douglas, Fiqre Crockwell, Lionel Cann, Stephen Outerbridge, Jekon Edness, Janeiro Tucker, Glenn Smith-Blakeney, Dwayne Leverock, Rodney Trott, Tamauri Tucker, Stefan Kelly, Kyle Hodsoll, George O'Brien.

Canada:

Ashish Bagai (captain), Balaji Dorakanti, Eion Katchay, Havir Baidwan, Henry Osinde, Ian Billcliff, John Davison, Khurram Chohan, Umar Bhatti, Arvindan Kandappah, Sandeep Jyoti, Qaiser Ali, Rizwan Cheema, Sunil Dhaniram, Geoff Barnett.

Denmark:

Freddie Klokker (captain), Mickey Lund, Carsten Pedersen, Michael Pedersen, Morten Andersen, Thomas Hansen, David Borchersen, Henrik Hansen, Ajay Chawla, Max Overgaard, Rohit Kanaiya, Soren Vestergaard, Rizwan Mahmood, Bahir Shah, Lars Andersen.

Ireland:

William Porterfield (captain), Andre Botha, Peter Connell, Alex Cusack, Trent Johnston, Kyle McCallan, John Mooney, Eoin Morgan, Kevin O'Brien, Niall O'Brien, Andrew Poynter, Boyd Rankin, Regan West, Andrew White, Gary Wilson.

Kenya:

Steve Tikolo (captain), Peter Ongondo, Hiren Varaiya, Kennedy Obuya, Collins Obuya, Thomas Odoyo, Morris Ouma, Nehemiah Odhiambo , Alex Obanda, Seren Waters, James Kamande, Rakep Patel, Rajesh Bhudiya, Lameck Ngoche, Elijah Asoyo.

Namibia:

Louis Burger (captain), Raymond van Schoor, JB Burger, Sarel Burger, Gerrie Snyman, Craig Williams, LP van der Westhuizen, Nicolaas Scholtz, Deon Kotze, Bjorn Kotze, Ian van Zyl, Louis Klazinga, Tobie Verwey, Bernard Scholtz, Hendrik Marx.

Netherlands:

Jeroen Smits (captain), Peter Borren, Mudassar Bukhari, Daan van Bunge, Ryan ten Doeschate, Tom de Grooth, Maurits Jonkman, Muhammad Kashif, Alexei Kervezee, Ruud Nijman, Darron Reekers, Edgar Schiferli, Pieter Seelaar, Eric Szwarczynski, Bas Zuiderent.

Oman:

Hemal Mehta (captain), Sultan Ahmed, Nileshkumar Parmar, Vaibhav Wategaonkar, Awal Khan, Farhan Khan, Syed Amir Ali, Haider Ali, Syed Maqsood Hussain, Ameet Sampat, Rafeeq Mohammed Al Balushi, Khalid Rasheed, Hemin Desai, Adnan Ilyas and Syed Tariq Hussain.

Scotland:

Ryan Watson (captain), Gavin Hamilton, Kyle Coetzer, Neil McCallum, Navdeep Poonia, Qasim Sheikh, Colin Smith, Craig Wright, Jan Stander, John Blain, Dewald Nel, Gordon Goudie, Calum MacLeod, Moneeb Iqbal, Majid Haq.

Uganda:

Junior Kwebiha (captain), Joel Olweny, Benjamin Musoke, Roger Mukasa, Lawrence Ssematimba, Kenneth Kamyuka, Frank Nsubuga, Danniel Ruyange, Arthur Kyobe, Charles Waiswa, Nehal Bibodi, Davis Arinaitwe, Akbar Baig, Nandi Kishore, Ronald Ssemanda.

United Arab Emirates:

Khuram Khan (captain), Saqib Ali, Arshad Ali, Amjad Ali, Amjad Javed, Naeem Uddin, Fahad al Hashimi, Zahid Shah, Sameer Nayak, Fayyaz Ahmed, Nithin Gopal, Qasim Zubair, Ravi Kumar, Owais Hameed, Muhammed Aman.

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