Canada forced to make more changes

The Canadian squad for the forthcoming tour of Kenya and Namibia has been further weakened by more withdrawals.

Already without many leading players - including Ashish Bagai, the captain - the selectors have had to bring in more replacements as a result of unavailability.

Ontario's Moishan Mulla had been called up to stand in for Steve Welsh, but work commitments means that he is now replaced by Calvert Hooper. Arvind Kandappan has been drafted in to replace Bagai and Mohammad Iqbal has also been added to the squad.

A spokesman from the Canada board recently told Cricinfo: "We were extremely disappointed with the number of non-availabilities for the Kenya and Namibia games, but this is really a fact-of-life with amateur sports, particularly in the North American commercial context.

"While it's obviously disappointing, it does give us an excellent opportunity to assess the performances of players who might not otherwise have been exposed to this level of international competition - which can be helpful in the long-term development of the game here."

The squad leaves for Kenya on October 7.

Canada Sunil Dhaniram (capt), Qaiser Ali (vice-capt), Trevin Bastiampillai, Mohammad Iqbal, Umar Bhatti, Chaudrey Jabbar, Ashif Mulla, Calvert Hooper, Henry Osinde, Krunan Patel, Jason Patraj, Aftab Shamshudeen, Durand Soraine, Arvind Kandappan.