Denmark: National team starts preparations for ICC Trophy with tour to South Africa
Peter Power - 8 March 2001
Denmark has embarked on a preparatory tour for the coming ICC Trophy in Canada this summer.
The tour is concentrated around Cape Town and involving match mainly against local club sides. One of the opponents, St.Augustines, will be comming to Denmark prior for leaving for Canada.
After last year's heavy disappointment in Scotland, the main target of this tour is to give the Danish players their self-confidence back and to get the team to work together on grass.
Don't forget some of the Danes have only played indoors these past months, so a bit of sunshine and grass should do wonders.
The Danish squad has a couple of new players, who have their chance to prove themselves on the team. Notably, Skanderborg's Søren Kirk has been included as a batsman after having a successful winter so far on the Australian club circuit. Several of the Danish players have played in Australia this winter, so hopefully the form is gradually increasing.
Below are brief pen pictures plus the itinerary
1. Morten Hedegaard (Captain). Morten, from Herning C.C., is a renowned pace bowler (RHM) and useful lower order batsman (RHB).
2. Frederik Klokker (wk). Frederik is a left handed opening batsman and wicketkeeper who plays for Skanderborg C.C and who has been playing in Australia this winter.
3. Lars Hedegaard is a brother to Morten and also plays for Herning as a hard hitting all rounder (RHB, RHM).
4. Søren Vestergaard has in the past played as a professional but has had to retire because of a back problem. This has changed his bowling completely and Søren is considered an all rounder playing for Svanholm CC.
5. Carsten Pedersen opens the batting for Herning CC (RHB) and is the occasional spin bowler.
6. Amjad Khan has joined the ranks of the professionals with a contract with Kent ARY. Feared in Denmark with both the bat and ball (RHB, RF).
7. Martin T.Jensen is one of Denmark's better seam bowlers, but who has had injury problems. Opens the bowling for Svanholm CC.
8. Bobby Chawla had his debut for Denmark last year with success as a leg spinner. Takes a lot of wickets for Svanholm.
9. Mickey Lund is Denmark's best fielder and a useful middle order batsman who will fight to the death. Mickey has played all over the place but has his roots in Svanholm.
10. Søren Kirk is a newcomer to the squad after excelling himself with bat down under. He's not very big but don't under estimate him as he hits the ball very hard. Also a useful off-spin bowler for his side Skanderborg C.C.
11. Saad Hafez is an allrounder and one of the backbones of his side Nørrebro CC. A newcomer to the squad he has played for the under-23 side.
12. Thomas Hansen is a deadly left-arm opening bowler from Svanholm CC with a past in Hampshire C.C. Very useful with the bat topping the averages last year!
13. Henrik Saxe Hansen is another newcomer to the squad from the ranks of the under-23 Plays for Glostrup as an all rounder but is more known for his pace bowling.
14. Lejf Slipsager is an old crafty rat bowling left-arm spin and a very useful lower order batsman whose experience in the game the youngsters will learn from. Plays for Herning C.C.
First reserve: Omar Farooq is an excellent spin bowler who can bat. Plays for Ishøj CC.
Tour Manager: Thomas Kentorp
National Coach: Ole Mortensen
Itinerary:
March 2: Arrive Cape Town International
March 4: vs. St.Augustines at St Augustines
March 5: vs. Western Province Academy at Cape Town C.C.
March 7: vs. Western Province U/19 X1 at Bellville C.C.
March 9: vs. Boland U/19 X1 at Boland Park, Paarl
March 11: vs. Boland Academy at Brackenfell C.C
March 12: vs. Western Cape Tertiary Cricket X1 at Western Cape University
March 13: Departure
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