Counties release associate players

Eoin Morgan and William Porterfield will be lining up for Ireland © Getty Images

The best cricketers in the six associate countries are gearing up for the ICC World Twenty20 qualifier to be held in Belfast from August 2-5.

The teams featuring in the tournament are Bermuda, Canada, Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland and Kenya and at stake will be three places in the ICC World Twenty20 2009 being staged in England.

Both finalists and winner of the third and fourth place play-off from this event will qualify for the tournament, which will take place at Lord’s, the Oval and Trent Bridge next June.

Top seeds Ireland will be led by 23-year-old left-handed batsman Will Porterfield. who plays for Gloucestershire and succeeded Trent Johnston as captain after the tour of Bangladesh earlier this year.

Porterfield has not captained Ireland in a one-day international or ICC Intercontinental Cup match but has led his team in five Friends Provident Trophy games.

Although his side lost four of the matches, Porterfield inspired his team to a four-wicket victory over Warwickshire, with an innings of 69, which was Ireland’s first win over a county side in two years.

Johnston, who masterminded Ireland’s greatest cricket success with wins over Pakistan and Bangladesh in the World Cup in the West Indies in 2007, is also staging a comeback after announcing he was taking a break from international cricket following the tour of Bangladesh in March.

Steve Tikolo will lead a Kenya side that includes 11 players who participated in the ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa in 2007.

Thomas Odoyo, who won the associate ODI player of the year award at the ICC awards in Johannesburg in 2007, is the other most experienced player, having played in all four ICC World Cups in which Kenya have participated.

Scotland have named a squad that has just three changes from the side that participated in the ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa last year.

The Scots will be led by 32-year-old batsman Ryan Watson, who scored a 43-ball century for Scotland against Durham in 2003 and also hit a match-winning 94 against Ireland in the final of the 2005 ICC World Cup qualifier.

Gavin Hamilton lends experience to Scotland's squad for the Twenty20 qualifier © Getty Images

The side includes former England batsman Gavin Hamilton, who played his only Test against South Africa in Johannesburg in 1999.

Others with County Championship experience include fast bowler John Blain (Northamptonshire and Yorkshire), Dewald Nel (Worcestershire), Kyle Coetzer (Durham) and Navdeep Poonia (Warwickshire).

The Netherlands are seeded fourth in the tournament and will be captained by 25-year-old all-rounder Peter Borren, a member of the New Zealand side at the ICC Under-19 World Cup in 2002.

Other experienced names in the squad are Alexei Kervezee of Worcestershire, Essex all-rounder Ryan ten Doeschate and 31-year-old batsman Bas Zuiderent, who has played for Sussex.

John Davison returns to bolster an inexperienced Canada side captained by Sanjay Thuraisingam. Davison last played for Canada in May 2007 and works as a coach at Australia’s Centre of Excellence.

The 38-year-old scored a century off 67 balls against West Indies at the ICC World Cup in South Africa in 2003. He also took 10 wickets in that tournament.

The squad also includes talented wicketkeeper-batsman Ashish Bagai, who won the player-of-the-tournament award at the ICC World Cricket League Division One the following year.

Bermuda, the sixth team in the event, are undergoing a transitional phase and includes just seven players who were part of the squad that played in the World Cup in the West Indies last year.

The squad is led by 36-year-old all-rounder Irving Romaine and also includes 37-year-old left-arm spinner Dwayne Leverock.

Bermuda will be relying heavily on the experience of Glamorgan captain David Hemp. Hemp has played in 41 Twenty20 matches in which he has a strike-rate of just under 123.

BERMUDA: Irving Romaine (captain), David Hemp, Rodney Trott, Oliver Pitcher Jr, Christopher Foggo, James Celestine, Oronde Bascome, Tamauri Tucker, Stefan Kelly, George O'Brien, Jekon Edness, Stephen Outerbridge, Dwayne Leverock, Kevin Hurdle.

CANADA: Sanjay Thuraisingam (captain), Ashish Bagai, Abdool Samad, Abdul Jabbar Chaudrey, Geoffrey Barnett, Henry Osinde, Harvir Baidwan, Eion Katchay, Sunil Dhaniram, John Davison, Muhammad Qazi, Abdus Sami Faridi, Karun Jethi, Steven Welsh.

IRELAND: Wiliiam Porterfield (captain), Niall O'Brien, Eoin Morgan, Kevin O'Brien, Andre Botha, Andrew White, Alex Cusack, Gary Wilson, Trent Johnston, Kyle McCallan, Thinus Fourie, Peter Connell, Philip Eaglestone, Gary Kidd.

KENYA: Steve Tikolo (captain), Thomas Odoyo, Kennedy Otieno, Collins Obuya, Peter Ongondo, Ondik Suji, Hiren Varaiya, Rakep Patel, Morris Ouma, James Kamande, Nehemiah Odhiambo, Elijah Otieno, Alex Obanda, Ragheb Aga.

NETHERLANDS: Peter Borren (captain), Mudassar Bukhari, Daan Van Bunge, Tom De Grooth, Maurits Jonkman, Alexei Kervezee, Geert M. Mol, Pieter Seelaar, Darron Reekers, Edgar Schiferli, Jelte Schoonheim, Eric Szwarzcyniski, Ryan ten Doeschate, Bas Zuiderent.

SCOTLAND: Ryan Watson (captain), Gregor Maiden, Navdeep Poonia, Colin Smith, Gavin Hamilton, Fraser Watts, Richard Berrington, Majid Haq, John Blain, Kyle Coetzer, Glenn Rogers, Dewald Nel, Neil McCallum, Gordon Drummond.