Canada's odyssey of extremes

Sports flash, Tuesday, 11 February: Canada cause cricket shock by hammering Test nation, Bangladesh, in World Cup.

Sports flash, Wednesday, 19 February: Canada all out for 36 against Sri Lanka, the lowest score in one-day international history.

There you have it, two days that shook cricket. Or at least, caused the odd ripple, even in Canada, where they are much more concerned about ice-hockey close-season signings. From hero to zero, or 36 anyway, in a week.

"I suppose you could say that the first match was definitely the best team performance I've ever played in and the second one wasn't," said Ian Billcliff, one of the history-makers. "For one match we were focused and for the other we lost our focus." It was an assessment with which it would be difficult to argue.

Karam Gopaulsingh, Canada's manager, described it as a rollercoaster week and is presumably awaiting the next upward whoosh against the fitful West Indies today. If he was searching for inspirational words he might have mentioned Kenya in the team bus on the way back from a day out at Sun City on Friday. They beat West Indies in the 1996 World Cup, the first team to overcome Test opposition.

Canada's performance in the 2003 tournament has provided sound cases both for why small countries should take part and why they should be sent back to the frozen tundra, probably literally in the Canucks' case.

Billcliff, a middle-order batsman who was enjoying a high old time until Chaminda Vaas darted one back into his pads, said: "We have hardly played together before and that as well as the difference in ability has to make a difference. I think I've been run out in every tournament I've played in for Canada and it happened again here in the first match. It's because you aren't together long enough to know your partners."

That was certainly true against Sri Lanka but Billcliff and his mates would naturally rather draw from the Bangladesh match. They turned up at Durban not knowing what to expect. "I think we just got on with our game and when we got into the high hundreds felt we had a chance," said Billcliff. "We didn't feel any pressure and I suppose it got to them. Sri Lanka was very different, they clearly knew what they were about and targeted our pads which was a good ploy. I've never played in a team who got a lower score but we'll just have to get on with it. We were exposed on the day."

The last Canadian team to participate in a World Cup – in England in 1979 – were dismissed by the host nation for a then record low of 45. As the first country to take part in an international cricket match (against the USA in 1849) Canada will always have a place in the game's history. There is no reason it should not take a reasonable hold once more in the country – Toronto has staged 22 international one-dayers – but it will probably take more home-grown players.

Many of the World Cup team were born elsewhere, in the Caribbean or Asia. Others, like Billcliff, were born in Canada but left at an early age. "My parents were working there but went home to New Zealand when I was two. I've always had two passports."

For Billcliff, who played first-class cricket for Otago, the big game of the tournament will be against New Zealand at Benoni. He wants the Kiwis to win the Cup yet he wants to beat them.

Sports flash, Monday, 3 March: Kiwi puts out Black Caps.