Canada's cricketers will go into the World Cup still feeling pretty pleased with themselves.

They booked their spot in the tournament by beating top seeds Scotland in the 2001 ICC Trophy third-place play-off - to the delight of a partisan crowd of 3,000 at the Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club.

The efforts of pace bowler Sanjayan Thuraisingham (five for 25) and opener Ishwar Maraj (50) carried them to a famous five-wicket victory which has belatedly given Canada their chance to make up for some unwanted World Cup history.

It was they who were responsible for the competition's lowest ever total - 45 against England at Old Trafford - in their only previous World Cup experience back in 1979.

They hope they are better equipped this time.

Maraj and Thuraisangham are joined in Canada's initial 2003 squad by captain Joe Harris and fellow frontline batsmen Nicholas De Groot, Muneeb Diwan and Desmond Chumney as well as off-spinner John Davison.

Canada's roll call has an exotic sound to it, and the backgrounds of many of its players do reflect the cosmopolitan appeal of the country.

Even 'ordinary Joe' Harris has an eastern connection, sharing Madras as his birthplace with another international captain - namely England's Nasser Hussain.

Should the pair wish to meet up to compare lineage during the World Cup, they could invite along Diwan who has played for Hussain's county Essex.

Diwan is not the only Canadian with first-class experience on his side. Harris has played for Barbados, Davison for Victoria and De Groot for Guyana - while Ian Billcliff has turned out for three different sides in New Zealand.

Canada needed all that pedigree to turn round an unfortunate chain of events which put their association in financial trouble as they prepared to host the ICC Trophy.

The cancellation of Pakistan and India's plans to play Sahara Cup matches in Toronto cast a cloud over the feasibility of staging the 24-team associate member competition in a country whose climate is far from reliable.

But it was against that background that a successful event was organised and Canada completed proceedings with their victory over Scotland.

The upward curve may suffer in southern Africa. But Canada, still on paper the weakest of the three associate member teams at the World Cup, have had the good fortune to fall into the slightly easier qualifying group.

The chances of them being bundled out for 45 again do at least appear remote.