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By Peter Della Penna

The inaugural USACA Twenty20 Nationals has been shifted from Dallas to New Jersey according to USACA General Manager Manaf Mohamed. The event will still be held on the same dates, June 17-19, but it means that the Atlantic Region now has three weeks to prepare for hosting the tournament.

“We were unable to come to an agreement on a final budget with the [Central West] region,” said Mohamed by telephone on Wednesday afternoon. Mohamed said that the decision to move the tournament to New Jersey was made by USACA President Gladstone Dainty.

However, an anonymous source close to the situation claims that Dainty made the decision to take the tournament out of the Central West Region as “retribution” for internal division within the USACA board. A report surfaced on May 13 which described opposing factions over the manner in which four people were appointed from USACA to the Cricket Holdings America LLC board.

Meanwhile, 20 players have been invited to participate in a training camp from June 11-12 in New York which will help decide the final 14-man squad going to Ireland for the ICC U-19 World Cup Qualifier in July. Mohamed says that USA U-19 coach Robin Singh will not be present for the camp and that it will be run by USA selectors Sew Shivnarine, Sunny Khan and Abrar Ahmad.

Eight players who were not part of the USA U-19 squad that won the ICC Americas U-19 title in February received invites in addition to 12 of the 14 players who were part of the championship squad. According to Mohamed, USA U-19 captain Abhijit Joshi and fast bowler Mital Patel will not be attending the camp as they are both currently training in India.

Five of the eight players who have been invited to the camp – Sohaib Choudhry, Prashanth Nair, Krish Goel, Akash Jagannathan and Amarnauth Persaud – were also invited to a January selection camp prior to the selection of the team for the ICC Americas U-19 tournament in February but did not make the final squad. Jasdeep Singh and Prumjot Panesar are getting their first opportunity to try out for the team.

The remaining invite was given to Greg Sewdial, who will be attempting to force his way back into the USA U-19 squad for Ireland after an extended layoff from cricket. Sewdial was the vice-captain and leading scorer for USA at the 2010 ICC U-19 World Cup in New Zealand, but is trying to overcome a career threatening ankle injury that required a pair of surgeries in May and December of last year.

Mohamed also revealed that USACA is trying to negotiate a series of matches between USA U-19 and West Indies U-19 to be played in Florida. The target date for the matches is between July 6 and 16, prior to the USA U-19 team’s departure for Ireland. If a series can be organized between those dates, the USA U-19 team would remain in Florida for a few more days of training before leaving from Miami for Dublin on July 19. The ICC U-19 World Cup Qualifier begins on July 28.