John Davison was 33 years old when he finally made his mark as a Canadian cricketer.
Davison hit the fastest-ever World Cup century in the 2003 championship. He needed only 67 balls to reach the milestone in a group game against the West Indies.
Canada still lost. And Davison's career didn't quite take off the way he might have hoped.
PHOTO: AFP
Davison interrupts his life as a personal trainer and cricketer with grade cricket club Mosman in Sydney to captain Canada at the World Cup starting on March 13.
"I sacrifice my time and income to go away, but it's good fun," Davison said. "A lifestyle decision rather than a monetary one."
Canada is grouped with England, New Zealand and Kenya and will do well to avoid going out in the first round.
"I reckon if we have a perfect day, where four or five guys perform to the best of their ability and England or New Zealand have a poor day, you never know," Davison said.
Davison was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, where his Australian parents were teaching. But he only spent five weeks in Canada before moving Down Under.
He played local cricket in Melbourne before attending the Australian Cricket Academy in 1993, where he trained alongside Glenn McGrath and Ricky Ponting.
Davison didn't follow those two into the Australia team -- instead he joined the Victoria state cricket team where he played as a right-arm offspinner and middle to lower order batsman.
Canada came calling in 1999. Davison spent that offseason in Canada as a player and coach and was soon drafted into the national side.
Davison played in the Canadian team at the 2001 ICC Trophy, a tournament for cricket's lower ranked countries, before hitting the spotlight at the World Cup in South Africa.
Davison hit six sixes and seven fours to reach 111. His previous highest score in a one-day international was 31.
He followed that with the third-fastest 50 against New Zealand.
Then came the low.
Canada registered the lowest team score in the history of the World Cup when it was all out for 36 against Sri Lanka. No Canadian player made double figures and the 140-ball game is the shortest completed match in World Cup history.
Davison said he went drinking afterward with English tourists who had turned up to watch the game after it had finished.
"I just felt obliged to buy them a beer," Davison said.
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
Teng Kai-wei, the only Taiwanese player on an opening-day roster in this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) season, took his first win of the year with the Houston Astros in his season debut. Teng entered in relief in the top of the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, with the Astros trailing 5-0. He pitched 2-1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, as Houston scored 11 runs during his outing to snatch an 11-9 comeback victory. The win is the Astros’ first of the season and the third of Teng’s MLB career. “It’s my first time pitching for the Astros, so
RSS