Canada's captain, John Davison. - Contributed

ST JOHN'S, Antigua (CMC):

CANADA ARRIVED here on Friday declaring they were looking to go beyond the group stage of next month's ICC Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean.

Coach Andy Pick, the former English county player, said a win against Kenya in their opening Group C match on March 14 in St. Lucia and a surprise result against favourites New Zealand and England, could see them playing in the Super Eight second round.

"England have not been playing particularly well.

New Zealand are a strong side. We have an important game against Kenya first up. If we can win that we just need to get some sort of result against one of the other two," Pick said.

"And as I say on any given day if enough of our players perform to their potential and England and New Zealand don't, then we have got a good chance.

"We've got a lot of players in the team I think single-handedly can change the result of a game. What we have to do is to try and get enough of those players to perform on any one day.

"If we do that then there's enough talent, without doubt, to surprise anybody," added Pick, the former Nottinghamshire and Wellington fast bowler.

Former West Indies Test seamer Andy Cummins is one of five Caribbean players in the Canadian team and Pick believes their knowledge of regional conditions could be an asset to his side.

Advantage

"It's got to be an advantage more than a disadvantage. How much of an advantage I don't know. Obviously, the pitches and stuff vary throughout the Caribbean so depending on how many guys play in St Lucia and here in Antigua (it could help)," Pick said. "Andy Cummins will be a massive bonus (with) his experience of playing throughout the Caribbean and some of the other guys have got quite a bit of experience as well."

The other Caribbean players are George Codrington, Desmond Chumney, Sunil Dhaniram and Austin Codrington.

Pick said his squad had been preparing well for the World Cup even though it was winter season in Canada.

"They have worked very hard. Their level of commitment has come as high as I have come across really with the work and commitment they do at home - family commitments and stuff like that," Pick pointed out.

"They are prepared as well as they can be given the circumstances they have to prepare. When we left Toronto yesterday it was snowing. It was minus 10 (degrees). So it's not easy to cast your mind to thinking of sunnier climates and cricket. So they have done well."

SQUAD: John Davison (captain), Qaiser Ali, Ashish Bagai, Geoff Barnett, Umar Bhatti, Ian Billcliff, Desmond Chumney, George Codrington, Austin Codrington, Anderson Cummins, Sunil Dhaniram, Ashif Mulla, Henry Osinde, Abdool Samad, Kevin Sandher.