The Spanish squad for the ICC World T-Twenty Europe B Tournament being played in Holland has finally been announced with the players coming from either the East Coast Central or Cataluyna Leagues.
Current ECCL Champions Sporting Alfas boast four players in the squad. Adam Algar, Jamie Roper, Kieran Perman and Christian Munoz Mills, who have all learnt their cricket in Spain and came through the Spanish Junior Academy system.
However, it is Pinatar Pirates that supply the squad with the backbone of the team, with no less than six members of the squad. Kuldeep Lal, Muckhtar Singh, Atif Mehmood and Ravi Panchal all have previous experience at ICC Senior Tournaments whilst Tom Vine has represented Spain at Junior Level. Paul Hennessy will be making his International debut at the event.
The four players from Cataluyna that take the final places in the fourteen man playing squad are Awais Ahmed, Muhammad Asjed, Zulqarnan Haider and Yasir Ali. Ali has experience of the Dutch wickets, having spent time with Punjab Rotterdam last season in the Eredivision.
The management staff for the event will be Bobby Denning as coach and Gary Crompton, of Sporting Alfas, as the team manager.
The squad are in Group B alongside Italy, Belgium, Isle of Man, Jersey and Finland and wil be based throughout the event in the city of Rotterdam, staying at the Hotel van der Valk Blijdorp.
Spain have a tough start in the 18 team competition with games against Italy and Jersey on consecutive days (29th and 30th of August). A rest day follows and then “La Seleccion” are back in action against the Isle of Man in the morning and Finland in the afternoon of the 1st of September. Spain’s final game is against Belgium on the 2nd of September.
Group A consists of Portugal, France, Austria, Cyprus, Germany and Denmark whilst Group C is contested between Gibraltar, Guernsey, Israel, Czech Republic, Sweden and Norway. The top two teams from each of the three groups will qualify to play in the ICC World T-Twenty Europe A competition next year.
Spain squad for ICC Senior Tournament in Holland.