Dubai, June 17 (IANS) All 14 countries have confirmed their squads for the World Twenty20 Qualifier to be held in Ireland and Scotland from July 9 to 26, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced on Wednesday.
“The top six sides from the 18-day tournament, during which 51 matches will be played, will join the 10 full members for the ICC World Twenty20 2016, which will be held in India from March 11 to April 3,” ICC said in a release.
In the tournament, Ireland will also aim to complete a hat-trick of titles after they won the March 2012 and November 2013 qualifiers, both times defeating Afghanistan in the final.
Ireland will once more be led by influential captain William Porterfield, who is the second leading run scorer in the competition’s history on 680.
The leading wicket takers in the competition’s history are; Scotland’s Majid Haq (34), Netherlands’ Mudassar Bukhari (33) and Ireland’s George Dockrell (31).
Eight of the 14 teams have participated in the main competition, with Canada, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, the US, Oman and Jersey (in their debut outing in the World T20 Qualifier) hoping to make it for the first time.
The squads:
Afghanistan: Asghar Stanikzai (captain), Javed Ahmadi, Aftab Alam, Mirwais Ashraf, Sharafudin Ashraf, Hamid Hassan, Nawroz Mangal, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Shafiqullah Shafaq, Mohammad Shahzad, Samiullah Shinwari, Dawlat Zadran, Najib Zadran, Shahpur Zadran
Canada: Rizwan Cheema (captain), Saad Bin Zafar, Khurram Chohan, Navneet Dhaliwal, Satsimranjit Dhindsa, Nikhil Dutta, Jeremy Gordon, Ruvindu Gunasekera, Amarbir Hansra, Shaheed Keshvani, Nitish Kumar, Cecil Pervez, Junaid Siddiqui, Hamza Tariq, Srimantha Wijeyeratne.
Hong Kong: Tanwir Afzal (captain), Irfan Ahmed, Nadeem Ahmed, Haseeb Amjad, Jamie Atkinson, Waqas Barkat, Mark Chapman, Aizaz Khan, Anas Khan, Nizakat Khan, Waqas Khan, Ehsan Nawaz, Babar Hayat, Anshuman Rath, Kinchit Shah.
Ireland: William Porterfield (captain), Andrew Balbirnie, Alex Cusack, George Dockrell, Tyrone Kane, Andrew McBrine, Graeme McCarter, John Mooney, Kevin O’Brien, Niall O’Brien, Stuart Poynter, Paul Stirling, Stuart Thompson, Gary Wilson, Craig Young.
Jersey: Peter Gough (captain), Corey Bisson, Dom Blampied, Corne Bodenstein, Paul Connolly, Ed Farley, Anthony Kay, Jonty Jenner, Ben Kynman, Tommy Minty, Rhys Palmer, Chuggy Perchard, Callum Rabet, Ben Stevens, Nat Watkins.
Kenya: Rakep Patel (captain), Emmanuel Bundi, Narendra Kalyan, Irfan Karim, Karan Kaul, Lucas Ndandason, James Ngoche, Shem Ngoche, Collins Obuya, Eugene Ochieng, Nehemiah Odhiambo, Nelson Odhiambo, Elijah Otieno, Morris Ouma, Gurdeep Singh.
Namibia: Nicholas Scholtz (captain), Stephen Baard, Sarel Burger, Christopher Coombe, Jason Davidson, Gerhard Erasmus, Zhivago Groenewald, Louis Klazinga, JP Kotze, Bernard Scholtz, JJ Smit, Christiaan Snyman, Gerrie Snyman, Raymond van Schoor, Craig Williams.
Nepal: Paras Khadka (captain), Pradeep Airee, Binod Bhandari, Shakti Gauchan, Sompal Kami, Karan KC, Subash Khakurel, Siddhant Lohani, Gyanendra Malla, Anil Mandal, Jitendra Mukhiya, Rajesh Pulami, Sagar Pun, Basant Regmi, Sharad Vesawkar
The Netherlands: Peter Borren (captain), Rahil Ahmed, Wesley Barresi, Mudassar Bukhari, Ben Cooper, Vivian Kingma, Ahsan Malik, Stephan Myburgh, Max O’Dowd, Michael Rippon, Timm van der Gugten, Paul van Meekeren, Thijs van Schelven, Pieter Seelaar, Michael Swart.
Oman: Sultan Ahmed (captain), Yousuf Abdulrahim, Zeeshan Ahmad, Amir Ali, Khawar Ali, Munis Ansari, Aamir Kaleem, Mehran Khan, Ajay Lalcheta, Sufyan Mahmood, Zeeshan Maqsood, Muhammad Nadeem, Rajeshkumar Ranpura, Jatinder Singh, Vaibhav Wategaonkar.
Papua New Guinea: Jack Vare (captain), Charles Amini, Sese Bau, John Boge Reva, Mahuru Dai, Willie Gavera, Loa Nou, Kila Pala, Pipi Raho, Lega Siaka, Chad Soper, Tony Ura, Vani Vagi, Assadollah Vala, Norman Vanua.
Scotland: Preston Mommsen (captain), Richie Berrington, Kyle Coetzer, Matthew Cross, Josh Davey, Con de Lange, Alasdair Evans, Michael Leask, Calum MacLeod, Gavin Main, George Munsey, Safyaan Sharif, Rob Taylor, Craig Wallace, Mark Watt.
United Arab Emirates: Mohamed Tauqir (captain), Fayyaz Ahmed, Amjad Ali, Saqib Ali, Umair Ali, Shaiman Anwar, Faizan Asif, Nasir Aziz, Manjula Guruge, Amjad Javed, Muhammad Naveed, Swapnil Patil, Ahmed Raza, Muhammad Shahzad, Abdul Shakoor.
US: Muhammad Ghous (captain), Alex Amsterdam, Fahad Babar, Adil Bhatti, Akeem Dodson, Karan Ganesh, Naseer Jamali, Japen Patel, Mrunal Patel, Timil Patel, Hammad Shahid, Jasdeep Singh, Nicholas Stanford, Steven Taylor, Shiva Vashishat.