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By Peter Della Penna in Hong Kong

On the eve of the first match for USA against Hong Kong at ICC WCL Division Three, USA captain Steve Massiah says that the pressure is on the host team to perform up to expectations. The home side has finished in the top two to gain promotion in five out of the last six World Cricket League events and Massiah feels that expectation is a bigger burden on Hong Kong to win than on USA.

“Based on the history there, I don’t think we have any pressure then if the home team would be the one expected to win,” said Massiah at a media conference for the six team captains on Friday afternoon. “We’re pretty relaxed. We’re just going to try to play to the best of our abilities and to our strengths. Obviously we don’t know a whole lot about the Hong Kong team so pretty much we’re gonna play what we see and we’re gonna take it one game at a time. We’re not gonna look past Hong Kong or any other team. Our journey is going to begin with baby steps and tomorrow’s our first baby step towards our goal which is ultimately to come one-two in the tournament.”

Hong Kong captain Najeeb Amar also admitted to feeling a bit of pressure in the first game in front of the home fans.

“We have a home ground advantage, but at the same time we have pressure as well because it’s our home ground and our people want to see victory for Hong Kong,” said Amar. “So definitely there is pressure on the Hong Kong team.”

USA’s match against Hong Kong will be played at Kowloon Cricket Club. None of the grounds used in this tournament have boundaries bigger than 65 meters in any direction while some of the boundaries are believed to be as small as 50 meters. This is the home of the famous Hong Kong Sixes and fireworks are expected to be on display from the batsmen throughout the eight-day tournament.

Sushil Nadkarni and Rashard Marshall in particular will be feasting their eyes on the short boundaries. However, the offensive assault from USA could be neutralized by the fact that USA’s spin-heavy bowling unit will also be in the firing line of any opposition they come up against. Massiah does not feel that USA’s bowling attack will be at a disadvantage though.

“To be quite honest, it’s going to be [small] for both teams so I don’t think one team has an advantage,” said Massiah. “I would say if any team has an advantage it would be the home team Hong Kong. I guess that’s the whole point of being the home team, to have some advantage. They would know the grounds and obviously the conditions very well. For us, it’s not a huge disappointment. We don’t look at it in any way negatively. I think we’re here to play cricket and we’re here to play good cricket. Whatever facilities are here, we’re going to try to make the best of it.”

Amar says that the size of the grounds can potentially lull some teams into a false sense of confidence that they can clear the ropes easily. As a result, it can backfire and lead to wickets.

“We’re used to playing in these grounds, both leagues we use to play in these grounds,” said Amar. “We can see they’re small grounds, but at the same time sometimes it’s really hard to cross the boundary actually because sometimes batsmen get trapped by the bowlers. So it looks like it’s easy to hit it across the boundary, but it’s not easy actually.”

USA head coach Clayton Lambert said he was pleased with the progress everyone has made this week in adjusting to the wickets here, which he described as a bit on the slow side and sometimes two-paced. Massiah is confident that both the veterans and the new players will shine on the small grounds at bat and in the field.

“We understood coming here that the boundaries are not the biggest but we have a pretty balanced attack so I don’t think it’s going to affect us because our attack is a very experienced attack and we have some very exciting young prospects too,” said Massiah. “Hopefully it will be good enough to get by in this tournament.”