Adapting to the weather will be our biggest challenge: Pick

NEW DELHI: The UAE will open its campaign against Nepal for the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier New Zealand 2014 (CWCQ), which begins on Monday with four matches. Coach Aqib Javed has worked on his team's weaknesses and hopes for the best result.
Aqib said he had been paying special attention to his batsmen. "We will be playing in conditions which are not familiar to any of our players.It is our first trip to that region," Aqib said.
"We have a good batting unit, but it has struggled on green, seaming tracks. That's why I am working extra hard with the batters specifically on how to counter seam and swing," said Aqib.
Aqib was a member of the Pakistan side that won the ICC Cricket World Cup 1992 and also played in the 1996 tournament, besides featuring in 22 Tests and 163 ODIs from 1989 to 1998.
UAE will be up against Canada on Wednesday. Canada's coach Andy Pick said the biggest challenge for his team has been adapting to the weather.
"We spent a few days in Auckland and played against a local team. It was an acclimatisation process really. Some guys have come from Winnipeg, where the temperature was minus 20 degrees, and they've come here where it's 20 degrees or so, so for some of them the temperature change has been up to 40 degrees!"
Pick said his main focus had been on improving team confidence after the side's 12th place finish at the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier UAE 2013 (WT20Q). "I am getting the group together, getting them to produce their best cricket, and get them upbeat. There are some new faces in the team and I want to instill some self-belief in the team," Pick, who played 195 first-class matches for Nottinghamshire and Wellington in which he scored 2,259 runs and took 495 wickets, said. He also helped England to two ICC U19 Cricket World Cup semifinals.