At the conclusion of the USACA National T20 Championship sponsored by the Overseas League Club – the official sponsor of the US Cricket Team, national selectors short-listed an 18-man squad to participate in the upcoming Pepsi ICC Americas T20 Division 1 Qualifier. This tournament will be held from May 3-10, 2015 in Indianapolis, Indiana and will feature USA, Bermuda, Canada, and Suriname. The top 2 ranked teams will advance to the 2015 ICC World T20 Qualifier to be held in Ireland and Scotland from July 6-26, 2015.
Nicholas Stanford has not played a game during the 2014 season and was selected ahead of many quality players for New York Region and USA. Photo by Shiek Mohamed
An additional 10 players were selected to be a part of a development program. These 10 development players combined with the Team USA squad, will form a 28-player talent pool for future international T20 tournaments. A selection process for a 50-over squad will happen at a later date and all eligible players in the US will have another opportunity to compete for 18 spots on the national team, in the longer format of the game.
Barney Jones, Chairman of the National Selection Committee, is looking forward to the prospect of rebuilding USA cricket and raising its status as one of the top Associate Members of the ICC.
“We are very excited about the squad selected to represent the USA in the upcoming Pepsi ICC Americas Division 1 T20 Qualifier in Indianapolis, Indiana next month. We have a set of players who are enthusiastic and committed to working hard to taking USA cricket to the top of the Associate ladder. In addition to this squad, we have selected 10 players to be a part of our developmental program. These players will work with the 18-man squad to help them prepare for future tournaments as well as provide a pool of players that we can keep a track of for potential call-ups to national duty. It was a tough job for the selection committee to identify18 players but we are sure the long-term results will be worth it,” said Jones.
Team USA
Adil Bhatti, Akeem Dodson, Barrington Bartley, Danial Ahmed, Fahad Babar, Hammad Shahid, Japen Patel, Jasdeep Singh, Karan Ganesh, Muhammad Ghous, Nicholas Standford, Nisarg Patel, Steven Taylor and Timil Patel.
Reserves
Mrunal Patel, Pranay Suri, Saqib Saleem and Srini Salver
Team USA Development
Abhijit Joshi, Andre Lindsay, Dhandapani Devarasan, Herlando Johnson, Jonathan Bonner, Srini Santhanam, Naseer Jamali, Neeraj Goel, Roy Silva and Ryan Persaud
The Captain, Vice-Captain and staff will be named at a later date.
Nicholas Stanford has not played a game during the 2014 season and was selected ahead of many quality players for New York Region and USA. Photos by Shiek Mohamed