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By Peter Della Penna

The inaugural USACA Twenty20 championship will now take place from June 17-19 in Dallas instead of 17-20 as was previously reported. According to tournament director Ramesh Thyagarajan of the North Texas Cricket Association, the tournament will take place at Russell Creek Park in the northern suburb of Plano with all eight teams playing simultaneously on four grounds located at the park.

The move to cut the tournament by a day was reportedly done as a cost-cutting measure. Thyagarajan has said that the tournament will be staged with an Eastern and Western Conference group round-robin format over the first two days.

On Friday June 17, each team will play two matches followed by a final group match on Saturday June 18. On Sunday June 19, the first place team from the Western Conference will play the first place team from the Eastern Conference for the tournament title. Corresponding second, third and fourth place teams in each conference will also play a third place, fifth place and seventh place match.

In related news, USACA General Manager Manaf Mohamed said last week that USACA would look to hold a training camp, most likely on July 9 and 10, for players selected from the USACA Twenty20 championship to represent USA at the ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 championship in Florida from July 17-24.

As for the U-19 team, Mohamed said that since there will not be a domestic national tournament held prior to the team’s participation in the ICC U-19 World Cup Qualifier in Ireland, USACA will likely hold a training camp on June 11 and 12 to help select a final squad. Mohamed anticipates that 20 players will be invited – the 14-man squad that won the ICC Americas U-19 championship in February as well as six other contenders decided by selectors – before a final squad is picked to go to Ireland.

The ICC U-19 World Cup Qualifier will take place from July 28-August 9 with matches to be played in Dublin and Derry. According to one source, the ten participating teams will each play their first four matches in Dublin before the tournament shifts northwest to Derry in Northern Ireland for the final five days of group play. The top six teams will advance to the 2012 ICC U-19 World Cup in Australia.