Hong Kong coach Charlie Burke said his side will have ‘no excuses’ if they fail to finish in the top four at the World Cricket League Division Two tournament which starts in Dubai tomorrow.The Division Three winners have been building up for the qualifiers since their triumph in January, and Burke would be ‘very disappointed’ if they didn’t cement their place in Division Two.Hong Kong begin the tournament against Uganda before facing Bermuda on Saturday, and their head coach believes his team’s recent experiences in Division Three might give them a slight advantage.“Finishing in the top four is realistic,” said Burke, “I’d be very disappointed if we didn’t finish in the top four.“We believe we’re one of the top four sides here, particularly with the way we have been playing the last sort of few months, we’ve played some really good cricket.“We don’t have any excuses, we have come directly out of Division Three recently, whereas some of these sides haven’t had that pressure situation of relegation and promotion.“You can have as many friendlies as you want but that actual (pressure), we’ve had that so that’s really important for us.“We’ve had a week here which is more than the majority of the other sides, so we’re conditioned to it now. So there are certainly no excuses and I think we’ve done the right preparation to make sure we finish in the top four, so anything less than that I’d be pretty disappointed.”While this week’s tournament will be a step up for Hong Kong, Burke doesn’t believe his side will be over-matched talent wise, rather it will be good decision making and performing under pressure that will make or break the week.“We talked a lot about the step up, and particularly from our practice games, and from the vision that we’ve seen of some of the leading countries here, you’ve just got to be a lot tighter in everything you do,” said Burke.“When you bowl you can’t allow one or two bad balls, in Division Three you get away with it a little bit moreso than here.“That’s been really important for us, the bowling side of things, and in the batting you’ve just got to find areas to score because the bowling’s going to be better.“I don’t necessarily think the bowling’s going to get faster and the guys are going to hit the ball more, it’s just that they are a bit smarter and a bit more game aware than what they are in Division Three.“I think we’ve worked pretty hard on that.”Aside from the pressure of having to win, there is also the pressure that comes from the enormous financial implications of succeeding, or not. Burke said that while he had tried to shield the players from most of it, they were all well aware of the cost of failure.“The difference between the top teams and those that finish near the bottom will be who can perform under pressure,” he said. “There’s a lot riding on this competition, it’s not just qualifying for another division, it’s financial and everything else.“The players, you can hide it from them but they’re aware of it, so you’ve just got to make sure you perform under pressure and that will be the biggest key (to success).”Despite a rich cricketing tradition, Hong Kong have never been in Division Two before, and Burke said the economic advantages of remaining there would be huge for the development of the game in China.“To have that funding allows more support staff, a full-time physio, it allows facilities to be better,” he said.“I think our facilities are pretty good, we don’t have a lot of access to them because there are private member clubs and things like that, but we probably need more turf wickets.“Those sorts of things, coaching resources, rewarding the players with contracts, are all top of my agenda if we’re able to produce that.“And then the funding that we already have we can spend purely on development, so that side of things can continue.“We’ve got a really good base now of Chinese players getting involved in the game, and hosting the Division Three tournament and winning that created a bit more interest too. It would be huge for us to stay in Division Two, but every country is going to say that.”n The six teams competing in the World Cricket League Division Two tournament are Hong Kong, Bermuda, Uganda, UAE, Namibia and Papua New Guinea.