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Host Canada scored a four-wicket victory over USA in a warm-up match before ICC Trophy gets under way Thursday.

The event is a passport to the next World Cup, with three of the 24 ICC Associate member countries competing in the tournament gaining automatic entry to the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. These will include both finalists and the winner of the qualifying final.

In the friendly game between the two North American sides, USA scored 196 for nine in 50 overs with Canada reaching the victory target losing six wickets in the process. Meanwhile, Canadian Cricket Association finalized arrangements for the World Cup qualifying matches.

Cricket officials said here that countries have been ranked and will be split into two divisions, one to 12, 13 to 24, and there will be two rounds of matches. At the end of the second stage a league will be formed based on the combined points achieved from previous fixtures.

Teams in first and second place contest the final, while third and fourth play in the World Cup qualifying final.

The final and a number of other round matches will be played at the Toronto Cricket Club. Other venues will include the Ajax, Malton, Maple Leaf CC; G. Ross Lord and Sunnybrook grounds, all of which are within the Greater Metro Toronto area and within a 60 minute drive of the City Centre.

Officials said Italy's World Cup ambitions have already been over- ridden by an International Cricket Council ruling that four of its leading players were ineligible to compete. The respective passages of Nepal, West Africa and the United Arab Emirates were far from smooth either; visa problems promoting a flurry of late diplomatic activity. Nonetheless, everything is now set in place for a spectacular and successful event.

"The rankings have been formulated. The schedule has been unveiled. 22 days in the midst of an increasingly warm Toronto summer have been set aside," said an ICC official.

He added: "An infrastructure has been made to measure and 10 grounds, replete with turf pitches which have been crafted in often unsympathetic conditions, have been beautifully prepared."

© Dawn