Canada women aim for World Cup qualification

The ongoing limited-overs series between Canada and USA will determine who goes on to participate in the Women's World Cup Qualifier to be held in Bangladesh in 2012. USA won the first of the three games comfortably in King City, Ontario.

Canada, who are led by Mona Persaud, qualified for this series by virtue of their victory in the 2009 Americas Region Women's Championship, where the USA were runners-up. Each of the three games will be held in King City, with the winner moving a step closer towards qualifying for the 2013 Women's World Cup in India.

George Codrington, the Canada coach, said his team was up to the challenge. "We have had a good week's training camp in Toronto before the big games and the girls have been training all spring - they're ready," he said.

Chandra Gocool, Cricket Canada's CEO recognized the growing importance of women's cricket and Canada's women's team. "Over the past few years we have stepped up our commitment to the women's program and we have seen marked improvement at the highest levels. We are excited to see more and more women participating in cricket across the country in recent years. It's a positive sign for the future of the women's teams."

The teams also play two Twenty20 games on Saturday.

Canada squad: Mona Persaud (capt), Kim Coulter, Nicole Gallagher, Helene Gaffney, Jennifer Gruno, Mahwish Khan, Monali Patel, Santhiya Rajaram, Kiran Samra, Natasha Springett, Suthershini Sivanantham, Sheryl Tittlemier, Mikaela Turik, Saniyah Zia, Vindhya Varanasi