Canadians bridge the generation gap

A 40-year-old and a 16-year-old may open the innings for Canada in their World Cup match against Zimbabwe today. They are the oldest and youngest players in the tournament.

NAGPUR, INDIA // John Davison, the Canada all-rounder and the oldest player at this year's World Cup, could have reason to feel his age when he is at the crease today against Zimbabwe.

Canada's need to shore up a weak batting line-up means the 40-year-old Davison may find himself playing alongside the tournament's youngest player, 16-year-old Nitish Kumar.

Kumar, who played his first one-day-international at the age of 15, may be drafted in to deal with Zimbabwe's three-pronged spin attack.

"I was lucky enough when I first went to Canada 10 years ago to meet Nitish as a six year old and I can tell you he was a very good cricketer by that stage," Davison said.

"His old man used to play club cricket with us and he used to run up and bowl to him and this little six year old was playing pull shots. It was pretty impressive. "When I first saw him, I thought, 'Jeez, it would be good to play with him.'"

The Australian-born Davison scored the tournament's quickest century in 2003 when he reached 100 off 67 balls. Kumar could get his chance to flourish just a year after his debut against Afghanistan.

"They might be opening tomorrow," Ashish Bagai, the captain, said yesterday, with a smile. "We'll settle on the team this evening but the top order's had a bit of a struggle so a bit of a shuffle is on the cards."

Bagai knows his team need something special after a 210-run defeat by Sri Lanka in their opening match showed just how tough things will be against the Test nations.

"We knew at the start of the tournament that Zimbabwe and Kenya were going to be our best chances to win," Bagai said. "We've had two warm-up games and the first match against Sri Lanka where the top order has really struggled. It's been tough for us and we've leaked too many wickets to recover from."

Davison remains a key figure for Canada, somewhat compensating for his duck against Sri Lanka by taking two wickets.

With a wealth of experience and confidence against the big sides, Davison would not be distracted by having such a youngster at the other end.

"The beauty about it is we don't affect the average age of the team," Davison said. "We cancel each other out."

* Associated Press