USACA announces its team to participate in ICC Americas U18 Match Play Camp. This Camp takes the place of ICC Americas U17 Championships and will be held at the Cricket Stadium in Lauderhill, Florida from July 9th to 14th 2012.

Amarnauth Persaud. Photos by Shiek Mohamed

The reasoning behind the change from a “Championship” to a “Camp” was explained in a letter circulated by Andy Pick, ICC Americas DPO, to the three participating countries – USA, Bermuda and Canada.

“The reason for this match play opportunity is to hopefully get you to focus on your selection this summer and to assemble a squad of players who, if successful, will be together right through to the ICC U19 CWC. It is also our hope that this camp will form the start of a 12 month development programme aimed at getting your squad in the best position to challenge for the one spot available.

This is the first get together of this kind and its success will be evaluated in two key areas; Firstly, that a large percentage of your U18 squad is retained in your U19s next year, and secondly, by us seeing evidence of an ongoing development plan, ICC Americas will then work with the qualifying team in its preparation for the ICC U19 CWC.”

Towards this end, there will be no trophies or champions. However, to keep the cricket competitive, points will be awarded not only for winning a match but also for executing good one day cricket habits and attitudes.

Zahib Tariq

Points structure:
• 10 points for a win
• 5 points for a no result
• 1 point available @ 15 overs -3 or more wickets down the point goes to the bowling side, less than 3 wickets down the point goes to the batting side
• 1 point for the team batting first if they bat the allotted overs, bowling side gets it if not
• 1 point for each 50 partnership
• 2 points for each 100 partnership
• 1 point for each run out resulting from a direct hit
• 1 point for bowling a side out
• 1 point for less than 1 extra ball per 5 overs when bowling (under 10 for the full 50 overs pro rata)

Randall Wilson.

USA U18 squad includes two players from its U19 team that participated in ICC U19 Global Qualifier in Ireland last year, Steven Taylor and Amarnauth Persaud.

In addition 2 members of USA U15 squad that won the Americas U15 Championships in Winnipeg last year, Dave Parikh and Vibhav Altekar, have also been selected to the U18 squad.

USA U18 Squad
1) Steven Taylor -Captain
2) Dave Parikh – Vice Captain
3) Mohamed Omar Afridi
4) Shakeel Ahmad
5) Vibhav Altekar
6) Arsh Buch
7) Krish Goel
8)Karan Patel
9) Ryan Persaud
10) Amarnauth Persaud
11) Zahib Tariq
12) Roshan Varadrajan
13) Omari Williams
14) Randall Wilson

Omar Afridi. (Photo: JLAaron)

Reserves
1) Trevis Ross
2) Armarnauth Singh
3) Immanuel Amirtharaj

USA Schedule
The players will arrive in Florida on July 6 for 3 days of training and practice prior to their first match on July 10. All matches are 50 Overs starting at 10:00 AM and will be played at Broward County Cricket Stadium in Lauderhill, Florida. Teams will play each other twice.
July 10 USA v Bermuda
July 11 USA v Canada
July 12 USA Off Day
July 13 USA v Bermuda
July 14 USA v Canada