5 teams you might not know who played the World Cup

The World Cup is the most coveted silverware in the sport of cricket. A highly competitive tournament, it is played every four years and requires the athletes to be at their elite best to fancy their chances in the squad.

While established teams such as India, Australia, South Africa and England kick off their tournament preparations a long time before the event, to lay their hands on the ultimate glory. However, for some associate nations, it is a matter of great pride to represent their territories in the multilateral extravaganza.

Kenya, Netherlands, Scotland and Ireland (formerly) have been some of the nations that have continuously marked their presence in the sporting extravaganza, with Kenya and Ireland also inflicting some of the biggest upsets in the history of the tournament.

At the same time, there are some astonishing names in the list of participants, teams who you might not know that featured in the World Cup. Here, are five such teams:

#5 Canada

Image result for canada at the cricket world cup

Ironically, Canada was one of the two teams (along with the USA) to feature in the first official cricket match in 1844. Apart from this, there have hardly been many moments to cherish for the Canadian cricket. Few of these occasions have come in the form of World Cup berths, 4 to be exact.

Canada participated in the World Cup for the first time in 1979, when the tournament used to be played in whites with 60 overs per side. Canada had finished as Runners-Up in the ICC Trophy; a 15-nation qualification tournament played in the same year. Wicketkeeper-batsman, Bryan Mauricette led the Canadians for the first time where they failed to win any of their matches and were out at the group stage.

The team did not feature in the next 5 editions, and made a comeback in the next millennium, in the 2003 World Cup. This time around, the North American nation did succeed to register a victory as they prevailed over Bangladesh in a low scoring encounter.

Canada did qualify for the next two editions as well but failed to make an impact, as they managed to win only one match, against Kenya in 2011. The nation did create a World Cup record, as its player Nitish Kumar became the youngest to play in the tournament at the age of 16 years and 283 days.