Young Associates vie for remaining places in ICC U19 Cricket World Cup
The final step on the road to qualification for the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup will be taken next month as the global qualifying event takes place in Canada from 1 to 13 September.
This intensive 10-team event involves each side playing nine matches in 13 days with the top six making it through to the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2010 which will take place in New Zealand from 16 to 30 January.
In all there will be six grounds used in and around Toronto with Maple Leaf Cricket Club in King City providing four of them. The other venues being used are Malton and Sunnybrook with five matches taking place in total per day.
Of course, the 10 hopeful teams have already enjoyed some success having made it through their respective regional qualifiers earlier in the year. The competing teams are: Afghanistan, Hong Kong (Asia), Canada, USA (Americas), Ireland, Netherlands (Europe), Sierra Leone, Uganda (Africa), Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu (East Asia-Pacific).
"The fact we now have regional and global qualifying stages for this event shows how much cricket is developing at age-group level around the world," said David Richardson, ICC General Manager ? Cricket.
"This is a great opportunity for these young players to experience tournament cricket and pitch their skills against teams from other parts of the world and against styles of play that they might not be familiar with.
"The ICC U19 Cricket World Cup has traditionally been a stepping stone for the world?s top players and I expect this year?s event to be no different. There has also been success for some of the Associate teams against Full Members so it will be interesting to see who emerges from the global qualifier to claim their places in New Zealand," said Mr Richardson.
The full match schedule is attached.
The event website goes live tomorrow(Tuesday) at www.iccevents.yahoo.com. On the site during the tournament there will be regular score updates from around the grounds.
The 10 squads are:
AFGHANISTAN: Shir Mohammad Shirzai (captain), Noor ul Haq Malekzai, Mahbob Shah Ayan Aminzai, Zard Ali, Iqbal Maliki, Ayoub Ahmadzai, Ayoub Khan, Asgar Hussain Hotak, Khoshal Rasuli, Aimal Wafa, Afsar Zazai, Zakiullah Zaki, Izatullah Dawlatzai, Jawid Ahmadi.
CANADA: Rustum Bhatti (captain), Hiral Patel, Usman Limbada, Riyazkhan Pathan, Darius D?Souza, Arsalan Qadir, Asif Manjira, Abishek Krishnamoorthy, Ruvindhu Gunasekara, Nitesh Kumar, Hamza Tariq, Zain Mahmood, Maninder Jill Singh Aulakh, Hardik Kotak.
HONG KONG: James Atkinson (captain), Irfan Ahmed, Niaz Ali, Mohammad Aizaz Khan, Zuiad Khan, Ashish Gadhia, Aditya Kanthan, Nizakat Khan Mohammad, Waqas Barkat, Shivang Baid, Vikash Vaswani Vinod Gope, Gurjant Singh, Asif Khan, Shakeel.
IRELAND: Andrew Balbirnie (captain), Ben Ackland, Adrian D?Arcy, George Dockrell, Shane Getkate, Graeme McCarter, Graham McDonnell, Lee Nelson, Stuart Poynter, Eddie Richardson, James Shannon, Paul Stirling, Stuart Thompson, Craig Young.
NETHERLANDS: Alexei Kervezee (captain), Floris Kingma, Timothy Gruijters, Quirijn Gunning, Lucas Brouwers, Philip van den Brandeler, Paul van Meekeren, Okke Olivier Klaus, Ferdi Vink, Vinoo Baldewpersad Tewarie, Gagandeep Singh, Thomas Sebastiaan Braat, Dennis Coster, Tobias Visee.
PNG: Tony Pala Ura (captain), Vagi Oala, Charles Amini, John Boge Reva, Steven Eno, Raymond Charles Haoda, Rogeauka Benjamin Roge, Jonathan Diho, Heni Siaka, Jason Kila, Mea Daniel Ao, Lega Tau, Sese Bau, Toua Tom.
SIERRA LEONE: Abubakar Kamara (captain), Ibrahim Kamara, Ibrahim Mansaray, Emmanuel Pessima, Jacob Mansaray, Balowa Mansaray, Mohamed Alie Bangura, Ibrahim Kabia, Julius Quee, Bami Williams, Osman Kamara, Edward Marrah, Brima Ansumana, Musa Ganda.
UGANDA: Ahmed Yakub (captain), Daniel Batuwa, Hamu Kayondo Bagenda, Andrew Ochan, Emmanuel Nakana, Dennis Tabby, Ahmad Sangau, Moses Okwera, Geoffrey Nyero, Henry Ssenyondo, Brian Masaba, Abraham Oduch, Suliman Abdul Hamid, Deusdedit Muhumuza.
USA: Shiva Vashishat (captain), Abhijit Joshi, Muhammad Asad Ghous, Saami Muneeb Siddiqui, Salman Rashid Ahmad, Henry Wardley, Naseer Jamali, Regis Burton, Azurdeen Mohammed, Ryan Corns, Talha Zamir, Yash Dipak Shah, Kavishwar Bridgepaul, Hammad Shahid.
VANUATU: Simpson Obed (captain), MacDonald Obed, Karl Laau, Trevor Langa, Patrick Matautaava, Tommy Tastuki, Jelany Chilia, Lazaro Carlot, Nalin Nipiko, Samson Worford Kalworai, Niko Unavalu, Steven Lynch, Kendy Kenneth, Kenny Tari.
More details on ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup 2010 can be found at:www.icc-cricket.com