By Peter Della Penna

Last week’s strong second place showing at the ICC Americas U-19 Regional Qualifier in Toronto was a huge step for Team USA. They are now only one step away from making the U-19 World Cup next February in New Zealand for the first time since 2006. Team USA finished 4-1 at the Regional Qualifier with their only loss coming to tournament champion Canada.

Despite not participating in the 2008 U-19 World Cup, Team USA has big expectations heading into the Global Qualifier that will take place in Toronto from September 1-13. Team USA only needs to finish in the top six of 10 teams to qualify for the U-19 World Cup, but that isn’t enough for Coach Sew Shivnaraine.

“My goal is to win it and I guarantee that we are gonna win it,” said Shivnaraine. “I think the boys are aware of what’s wrong, why we lost against Canada. The Canadian players were getting into these guys minds…. Now they realize that when they go back in September, they’re not gonna play with their heads any more.” The coach isn’t the only one brimming with confidence. His players are backing him up as well.

“I think if you look at the talent on the team, we should have come in first actually,” said Henry Wardley who finished as the second highest run scorer in the event behind the tournament MVP, Canada’s Hiral Patel. “We were more talented than Canada. It’s just we choked on the day and their tactics beat us.”

Team USA U-19 captain Shiva Vashishat echoed the sentiments of Coach Shivnaraine, that there was a silver lining from the defeat to Canada. “The loss against Canada helped us a lot because it was the first time we faced pressure,” said Vashishat. “Overall, we all played together. We’re gonna be a better team for the next time we come around for the next tournament.”

The team arrived in Canada on Wednesday July 1, five days before the start of the tournament to get some crucial practice on turf wickets. With the lack of turf wicket facilities available in the United States, most club matches are played on matting or artificial wickets. As a result, many of the players were going to be playing on turf for the first time and the adjustment was going to be a key factor in the success or failure of the team in the tournament. Team USA’s top order batting was excellent, particularly the contributions from Wardley, Azurdeen “Andy” Mohammed, Ryan Corns, Vashishat and Gregory Sewdial. However, the middle and lower order struggled, particularly against spin bowling. While Team USA overall performed admirably on the wickets at Maple Leaf Cricket Club in King City, Ontario, Coach Shivnaraine feels there is still plenty of room for improvement.

“I think they should have a lot of batting practice,” said Shivnaraine. “I’ve noticed with spin bowling, they were having problems playing spin bowling. Remember they’re not used to the turf. That’s one of the reasons the batting didn’t explode as usual. If you play on the mat, you’ll have a lot of guys make a lot of runs.”

The bowling however was superb, particularly the spin bowling. Yash Shah led the way for Team USA with 8 wickets in four games and finished as the third highest wicket taker in the tournament behind two other spinners. Chris Douglas of Bermuda finished with 14 in five games and was named the tournament’s Best Bowler. Orlando Stuart of the Bahamas had 11 in five matches as well. According to the Tournament Director Martin Vieira, the ICC Americas Regional Development Manager, the weather was a factor in why spin bowling dominated the event.

“The weather was probably the biggest concern, not only during the tournament but leading up to the tournament because it’s been a very wet summer in Toronto,” said Vieira. “The groundspeople had a very difficult job in getting the wickets prepared. If there was one negative thing about it, it might be the wickets were probably on the slow side. But overall I think the tournament went well.”

Shah’s performance was all the more impressive considering he wasn’t even in the original 14 man squad. He was called in as a last minute replacement for Saqib Saleem.

“I found out on Monday evening and my ticket was on Thursday,” said Shah who had to join the team a day later than the rest of the squad.

“I had Yash in the team, but when the team selection committee only had to select 14, then he was the odd man out,” said Shivnaraine. “But I realized that in the 14, if one of the guys wasn’t going, Yash was the next man in line because he really bowled well in the trials. Getting him [to Toronto] was a godsend because his performance was so good. It was unbelievable how he bowled for a little man.”

Shah was very well supported by Corns, Muhammad Asad Ghous, Mohammed and Vashishat in the spin department, while the pacemen Naseer Jamali and Salman Ahmad were solid if unspectacular with the new ball.

“Our batting is our strength,” said Shah. “We have batsmen to number nine. Our bowling, especially the spin bowling also has been doing very good and pacers are doing extremely well in the beginning overs as well. Overall it’s a great team we have.”

The fielding was noteworthy as well. Wardley and vice-captain Sewdial each had four catches. Sewdial was given the award for the tournament’s Best Fielder. In the match against Bermuda, Sewdial pulled off three stunning catches to help turn the tide in Team USA’s favor.

The team was led very well by captain Vashishat. While most of the players were playing under him for the first time, the performance of the team showed how fast he picked up on how to get the best out of his men.

“I knew he was a very talented captain,” said Wardley. “Whenever we needed someone to perform, he would pretty much perform. Under pressure situations, like in the field against Bermuda and against Canada, he always made the right decisions.”

“Heading into the tournament, my main goal was to get to know everyone, get to know their strengths, weaknesses and play together as a team,” said Vashishat. Coach Shivnaraine was pleased with the way Vashishat accomplished this goal.

“He’s a fantastic guy,” said Shivnaraine. “He listens. We make plans before the game and he always listens to our plans and he works with that. I don’t have to tell him from outside what to do. That’s the good thing about Shiva. Shiva has a lot of experience captaining teams.”

One other thing that Coach Shivnaraine has spoken to the team about is sportsmanship. Overall, Team USA demonstrated exemplary behavior on and off the field. However, there were two incidents that the coach was not happy with. In one match, a Team USA bowler attempted to run out the batsman at the non-striker’s end after he had entered his delivery stride. In a separate incident, a Team USA batsman openly questioned an umpire’s decision by gesturing that he had hit the ball into the ground before finally walking off the field.

“I discussed it at a meeting,” said Shivnaraine. “This is a gentleman’s game. They shouldn’t do that…. They understand though. They apologized which is good. They apologized to the manager, to the coach and to the umpires.”

Away from all the action, the players had an awesome experience getting to interact and make friends with the other teams at the hotel.

“It was a good experience, especially chatting with some Argentinean guys and Bahaman guys and also Canadian guys, off the field we were all happy,” said Shah. “I even gave my floppy hat to one of the Argentinean guys. They really are nice kids. They are eager to learn that’s what they are. They are eager to learn this game and I’m happy to see that.”

Many of the players on Team USA’s U-19 squad will be competing in senior level USACA tournaments over the next few weeks. Ghous and Shah have been selected to represent the Atlantic Region at the Eastern Conference tournament in Washington, D.C. taking place from July 17-19. Corns, who finished as the fourth highest run scorer in Toronto and had two half-centuries in four matches before getting hurt, was recently selected to represent the Central West Region for the Western Conference tournament in Minneapolis, Minn., from July 31-August 2. The experience against higher level competition will only help them in their quest to advance to New Zealand in the U-19 World Cup.

“To be honest it would be a dream to appear in the World Cup,” said Shah.

From L-R bottom row: Team Physio Akhtar Masood "Chik" Syed, Abhijit Joshi, Muhammad Asad Ghous, Henry Wardley, Shiva Vashishat, Regis Burton, Yash Shah. From L-R top row standing: Coach Sew Shivnaraine, Azurdeen "Andy" Mohammed, Naseer Jamali, Salman Ahmad, Ryan Corns, Talha Zamir, Saami Siddiqui, Gregory Sewdial, Steven Taylor, Manager Wesley King.