Bin Zafar also pointed out a geographical handicap that Canada must contend with. “It’s also hard for us because we don’t fall under areas like Asia or some region, because Asian teams they get to play Asia Cup and a few other tournaments,” he said. “We don’t have anything like that.
“So if we can start something like that where ICC can help us play some of these regular countries a couple of games throughout the year, it will give us more exposure and more experience, then we can reflect and learn from them and come better prepared.
“Because at World Cups, you are thrown right against the bigger opponents. We don’t get any prior experience coming to the World Cup. So I hope that’s something that ICC can do for us as Associate nations.”
Playing in front of big crowds over the last couple of weeks was one of those new experiences. “Obviously, there is a lot of mental pressure there when you play in front of the crowd, in front of the mass audience – not just the crowd at the ground but also the very fact that the whole world is watching you,” Bin Zafar said. “It puts you under a lot of pressure but as cricketers we have to find ways to control our nerves and focus on the job on hand.
“In Associate cricket, even if we play without crowds we have other kind of pressures. A lot of the tournaments we play, our qualifications are on the line whether we have to play a tournament to regain our ODI status or to qualify for a World Cup. So it’s a different kind of pressure but that’s pressure itself. So as cricketers we are just used to controlling the pressure and staying present.”
Canada finished their T20 World Cup campaign with four losses from four games but there were still positives to take home.
“A few individual performances,” Bin Zafar said, “Yuvraj [Samra] is one of them, Harsh Thaker had a few good knocks, bowling wise Ansh Patel, myself we picked up a few wickets, Kaleem Sana had a few good spells. So all in all a few individual performances but it’s disappointing that we couldn’t have a complete game.”
