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By Peter Della Penna

The inaugural ICC Americas U-17 tournament that was scheduled to be held in Toronto from July 3-10 has been canceled. ICC Americas Regional Development Manager Martin Vieira confirmed the news by email. No reason was given for the cancelation.

Consequently, the first USACA U-17 National Tournament has been postponed. The tournament was originally scheduled for Memorial Day weekend, May 27-30, in Orlando, Fla.

“We have not canceled it, we’ve just postponed it,” said USACA General Manager Manaf Mohamed. “We don’t want it to interfere with school schedules.” A new date has not been decided, but Mohamed said he anticipates the tournament will now be held late in the summer.

The USACA Junior Nationals, the country’s U-19 National Tournament, is yet to have a finalized date, but it is likely that they will be held in the fall on Columbus Day weekend, October 7-10, in Los Angeles.

As of now, the first USACA tournament of the year will be the first ever USACA Men’s Twenty20 Championship. It is scheduled to be held in Dallas from June 17-20. A format has not been finalized, but Mohamed hinted that each team could play two matches a day. With all eight regions participating in the tournament, that could mean a round-robin style event with every region playing each other followed by a 1st place, 3rd place, 5th place and 7th place game on the final day.

The event will be used to help pick a team to participate in the ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 in July. In addition to Canada, the two next best finishing teams will advance to the 16-team 2012 World Twenty20 Qualifier in Dubai. Canada automatically qualifies for the 2012 World Twenty20 Qualifier, in addition to Afghanistan, Ireland, Kenya, Scotland and the Netherlands, by virtue of being an Associate/Affiliate team with ODI status.