This Is Guernsey

Guernsey captain Stuart Le Prevost will be leading the team against Nepal next week.

PAKISTAN star Ijaz Ahmed believes the country which Guernsey will face on Wednesday have the talent to reach the World Cup in future.

The man who played in four World Cups, winning one, was coach of the Pakistan Cricket Board Academy squad who lost the final game of a three-match series to Nepal this week, having won the first two.

‘They have talent. They can build a team, no doubt about it,’ Ijaz told NepalCricket.com. ‘The only problem is the facilities. If you could give them the proper environment and facilities, Nepal can go up. They have started the journey to [the World Cup]. If they get the facilities here, they can make it. And I am not just saying it, I mean it.’

He added that their most impressive attribute was team spirit. ‘Whenever they got an opportunity, they were all charged up. This is a very good sign for a team dreaming to go to the top level.’

The PCB XI won the opening two games against Nepal by seven wickets and 109 runs respectively, but a side boasting players with one-day international experience slumped to a 15-run defeat in the final match as Nepal defended a paltry 136, largely thanks to their spinners.

‘Although my team is not a Pakistan national team, there are four who have played for Pakistan and others are knocking on the door, so I believe it’s a great achievement for Nepal to beat us.

‘They will now go with higher confidence in the Division Five and I hope they will win there,’ Ijaz said.

Nepal and the Bahamas arrive in the island at the weekend to play a couple of warm-up games apiece before competing in the ICC World League Division Five tournament being held in Jersey.

The visitors face each other at the KGV on Monday before Guernsey play Bahamas the following day at Port Soif.

The Sarnians meet Nepal on Wednesday at the KGV.

The games are due to start at 10.45am, although the last might be earlier due to travel arrangements.

‘Nepal are a big nation with a big population and they have done well at recent Under-19 World Cups, so clearly there’s something there,’ said Guernsey Cricket Board chairman Dave Piesing.

‘It appears that those results have not filtered through yet to the senior performances, but it shows that they are not going to be pushovers by any stretch of the imagination.

‘I do not know much of the Bahamas except that in a tournament in Surinam they played and lost in the final to Surinam to see who goes forward into Americas Division One.’

Bahamas had been odds-on favourites to top the group and had to avoid only a comprehensive defeat against the hosts to do so, but failed as they crashed to 57 all out.

‘I think Nepal, Afghanistan and USA would be the main favourites on paper in Jersey, but the beauty of it at the moment is no one really knows the standard to expect from others,’ Piesing said.

‘It is probably one of those tournaments where if you go in with the wrong attitude believing you should win, you could easily get turned over.

‘The World League brings all these countries into global competition and you do not know how the regions compare. I would imagine after three or four years of world tournaments, you would have a reflection of who fits in where.’