Will look to do justice to our ability: Kamande

Bruised and battered after three humiliating defeats, Kenya skipper Jimmy Kamande on Sunday said his team would look to do justice to its ability in the remaining World Cup matches starting with their clash against Canada here on Monday.

With the ICC planning to reduce the number of teams in future World Cups to 10 from the existing 14, it will be the end of the road for associate nations and Kamande said the Kenyans would look to prove their worth in the next three games.

"It has been tough for us in the first three games. We have not done justice to our ability, hopefully we will do it tomorrow by putting up a good score," Kamande told reporters ahead of their clash with Canada at the Feroze Shah Kotla stadium here.

"It is a tough job when you lose, not only in the World Cup but also in any series, to keep motivating. Guys are working on it. We all knew it was not going to be easy when we came here. The spirit is still very high. We have played three demotivating games, hopefully we do a lot better tomorrow.

"Canada is one of the better teams in the World Cup and we have to pick ourselves up and treat them with respect and put up a good performance and win tomorrow."

"We didn't express ourselves fully. We would not take too much pressure on us, we just need to hit the ball and not get defensive and try to play positive and hopefully we will win tomorrow," he added.

Kamande said the team would perform for its "legendary players Steve Tikolo and Thomas Odoyo, who played a huge role for Kenyan cricket" and would look to give them a good send off.

"Steve Tikolo and Thomas Odoyo are the legends of Kenyan cricket. They have played in five World Cups. Our batting revolves around Steve. He is an experienced player and Odoyo is a new ball bowler. So these two guys have a huge role to play in the team," he said.

"It is not just their last world cup, it may be for most of us and obviously we would like to give them a good send off tomorrow. They have played the game with lots of guts, representing Kenya for so many years at the top," Kamande added.

Kamande said he is saddened by the demise of Kenyan cricket and asked the ICC for some more opportunities to play against tougher nations.

"After where we were after the first six-seven years, especially after 2003, we didn't even participate in any tournament for one and a half years apart from the champions Trophy played in England. We put the blame on ICC and ourself but now we have started again and in the last seven months, there has been a change of direction and we know where Kenyan cricket has to go," he said.

"It is difficult to qualify for the World Cup and after that you leave us alone for four years to play within ourselves and work on ourselves. It is going to be difficult. It doesn't matter if it is 50 overs or Twenty20. They qualify as they are a Test playing nations. Even if we play Twenty20 cricket, it will just shorten the margin of defeat to may be 40 runs, which is still a huge margin at the end of the day. So, we have got to play the big teams to improve.

"But even now we owe a lot to Richard Done (ICC High Performance Manager), he is one ICC guy who has done a lot for us, for Kenyan cricket," he added.