By RON FANFAIR
Canada will host the third biennial Americas Under-19 youth cricket tournament in August.
International Cricket Council (ICC) Americas Manager Martin Vieira said the decision was made to bring the series back to Canada based on the cost factor to stage the event. The last tournament was held in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) two years ago.
"Toronto and South Florida were the only viable options, but this city got the nod because South Florida does not have sufficient turf wickets," said Vieira.
In addition to Canada, the other competing countries are the United States, Argentina, the Cayman Islands and Bermuda which hosted the inaugural competition.
The tournament was originally scheduled to be held in Jamaica, but that country's cricket association informed Vieira that it would be unable to host the competition because of prior commitments to stage the West Indies Women's tournament and the Caribbean Under-19 series this summer.
"They came back to us and said they would not be able to host another series, hence our search to find an Americas territory that could stage the event," said Vieira. "It's going to cost us around US$100,000 to run the event in this city and that falls within the funds we have for the tournament. That's why Toronto has become the logical and sensible choice."
The series will run from August 7-13 at King City. Two matches will be played each day with one rest day in between the tournament. The winner will advance to the fifth Under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka next year.
Canada participated in the 2002 tournament in New Zealand.
Canada' s dominance in the regional Americas series could be tested this year since just four of the members that took part in last year's World Cup are eligible for this year's Americas series. They are Victoria Park batsman Ryan Lall, wicketkeeper Kenneth Carto, right-arm leg-spinner Krunaibhai Patel and West Indian Cricket Club all-rounder Trevin Batsiampillai.
"We will be challenged this time around," admitted Canadian Cricket Association (CCA) junior co-ordinator Leroy Grey. "I however believe that we will be able to field a very competitive team and we could repeat as champions if each player competes hard and gives everything he has. That's all we are asking for."