CAW will fine-tune preparations for an assault on the February 13 to 17 tournament with a 50-over match against East Asia Pacific at Bunton Park on Sunday from 10am.

East Asia Pacific is playing in the Australian Country Cricket Championships in Geelong and will provide a good test for CAW before it attempts to again earn promotion from the lowest division at Country Week.

CAW won two and lost two matches at Country Week last year and Ball says anything less than promotion this year would be a major disappointment.

“Shepp and Sunraysia are in the same situation as us,” Ball said yesterday.

“They’ve all had to work their way back up again.

“It’s a strong comp and it’s going to be hard to get back up.

“But in saying that we should be the team to beat.

“We won’t have any excuse with the preparation we’ve got this year.”

CAW will have a squad of about 17 for Sunday’s match against East Asia Pacific.

The squad will be cut to 14 for Country Week.

“We played them a couple of years ago and they beat us pretty easily,” Ball said of the East Asia Pacific team.

“It will be a good standard game.

“They have done all right down at the Australian Country Championships so we are looking forward to the match.”

CAW representatives will be running a raffle during Sunday’s game to raise money for Country Week.

“We want to raise some money to cut down the cost for the players,” Ball said.

CAW, which will be captained by Lavington star James Tonkin, appears set to take a stronger team to Melbourne than last year.

Robbie Jackson, Andrew Lade and Heath Naughton are unavailable, while the likes of Luke Restall, David Farrell and Greg Daniel are committed and likely to form the backbone of the side.

“We are pretty happy with our team,” St Patrick’s star Ball said.

“I reckon I’ve got as good as we can get. Jacko can’t come and Andrew Lade we tried to get but it’s the same sort of thing (work).

“Other than those guys we’ll be as strong as we can get.”

The CAW squad will be managed by Garry Purtell, with Gerard Midson assistant coach.