Four of the 35 ICC associate member teams — the Netherlands, Canada, Ireland and Kenya — that feature in World Cup 2011 are composed of an eclectic mix of Asians, Africans, West Indians, Australians and New Zealanders.
For starters, the Kenyan team is coached by West Indian Eldine Baptiste, Ireland by Phil Simmons, also a West Indian, the Netherlands by Aussie Peter Drinnen and Canada by Sri Lankan Pubudu Dassanayake.
The followers of the game in India will, no doubt, recognise some of the players.
The 39 year-old Steve Tikolo will be playing his fifth World Cup for Kenya, which will also have Thomas Odoyo in its ranks.
“My legs are going now, and I'm getting a little too slow. I think it's time to let the youngsters come through. I will not be around for the next World Cup,” said Tikolo. A popular man in India, Tikolo has come out of retirement to play his fifth World Cup.
Ed Joyce, formerly of England, will turn out for Ireland. Dutchman Ryan ten Doeschate — who was 2010 ICC Associate and Affiliate Player of the Year — was picked up by Kolkata Knight Riders for $150,000 for IPL IV. Interestingly, the 30-year-old all-rounder was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and has played First Class tournaments in England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
ten Doeschate is not the only South African-born player playing in the World Cup for an Associate member team. In fact, the Netherlands alone has four others — Eric Dwarczynski, Bernard Loots, Bradly Kruger and Wesley Barresi — born in South Africa.
Ireland's Albert van der Merwe, who has led Potchefstroom University, and Andre Botha are also South African-born.
Sub-continental origins
The Canadian team has a handful of players of sub-continental origin.
Skipper Ashish Bagai was born in Delhi, Hiral Patel in Ahmedabad, Jimmy Hansra in Ludhiana, Parth Desai in Navsari, Harvir Baidwan in Chandigarh, and Balaji Rao was even part of the Tami Nadu under-19 team.
The other players that Canada has borrowed from other cricketing nations are Australian Karl Whatham, Pakistan-born Khurram Chouhan and Rizwan Cheema, Sri Lanka's Ruvindu Gunasekera, Jamaican Tyson Gordon and Henry Osnide of Uganda.
Nitish Kumar — who, at 15 years and 272 days, became the second youngest debutant in ODIs after Pakistan's Hasan Raza — and Zubin Surkari are players of sub-continental origin who are Canada-born.
Ireland had caused the biggest upset of the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies beating Pakistan in Jamaica. Irish skipper Trent Johnson, who finished the match off in style by hitting Azhar Mahmood for six, was born in New South Wales, Australia, and has played alongside the likes of Mark Taylor, Michael Bevan and Brett Lee.
The other antipodeans in the Ireland team are the New Zealand-born Nigel Jones and Australia-born Alex Cusack.
The Netherlands' captain Peter Borren played on the New Zealand under-19 team with Ross Taylor and Jesse Ryder. He leads a team that has, apart from the aforementioned South Africa-born players, Adeel Raja and Mudassar Bukhari, born in Pakistan, Alexie Kervezee (Namibia) and Tom Cooper (Australia).
