The BLACKCAPS will recognise a few familiar faces among their ICC World Cup first round opposition.
State Central Stags opener Geoff Barnett features in Canada’s 15-man party, who will also play England and Kenya in St Lucia.
Barnett, who retains aspirations of playing for the BLACKCAPS, missed his team’s recent ICC World Cricket League campaign in Kenya.
But he will hook up with former Auckland and Otago batsman Ian Bilcliff and skipper John Davison in time to take on his fellow Kiwis.
England, the Tri-Series winners who provide their first opposition in St Lucia on May 16 (local time), have called on the bulk of the squad that triumphed in Australia.
Former State Auckland Ace Mal Loye has missed out on the squad, but Michael Vaughan will captain the side after an injury-blighted stay Down Under.
The African side are unchanged from the team who won the ICC World League on home soil and are captained by 2003 World Cup veteran Steve Tikolo.
The BLACKCAPS open their campaign against England at the Beausejour Stadium on 16 March (local time), after warm-up games against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
England: Michael Vaughan (captain), Ed Joyce, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Strauss, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Ravi Bopara, Paul Nixon, Jamie Dalrymple, Liam Plunkett, James Anderson, Sajid Mahmood, Jon Lewis, Monty Panesar.
Kenya: Steve Tikolo (captain), Thomas Odoyo (vice-captain), Ravindu Shah, Tanmay Mishra, Collins Obuya, Peter Ongondo, Nehemiah Odhiambo, Morris Ouma, Malhar Patel, Hiren Varaiya, David Obuya, Rajesh Bhudia, Jimmy Kamande, Tony Suji, Lameck Onyango.
Canada: John Davison (captain), Ashish Bagai, Ian Billcliff, Geoff Barnett, Kevin Sandher, Umar Bhatti, Desmond Chumney, George Codrington, Austin Codrington, Andy Cummins, Sunil Dhaniram, Asif Mulla, Henry Osinde, Abdool Samad, Qaiser Ali.
for the full ICC Cricket World Cup schedule - (please note – all dates and times are GMT)
