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By Peter Della Penna

The inaugural ICC Americas U-17 Tournament, originally scheduled for April 1-8, has been shifted to July 8-15 in Florida. In its original budget for 2012, the ICC Americas office had notified the Associate countries of the region that it planned to enter a team into the Sir Garfield Sobers Schools Invitational Tournament which is held every July in Barbados.

However, ICC Americas Regional Development Manager Martin Vieira wrote in an email on Thursday that a decision had recently been taken by the office that they would not send a representative team to the tournament. This allowed the office to shift the dates of the ICC Americas U-17 Tournament to July, which was also more appealing for several countries because it would not interfere with school. Some countries may have had to deal with players missing class time had the tournament been held in April. This was a source of problems last year when the ICC Americas U-19 Division One Tournament was held in February in Florida. At least one team went to the tournament without key players due to school schedules.

Due to the ICC Americas U-17 Tournament being shifted to July, the USACA U-17 Tournament has also been postponed to a date yet to be determined, according to a source. USACA has made no official announcement regarding the status of its U-17 Tournament, but the original date for the tournament is February 17-20 and no information was ever sent out regarding a host location or other logistical information.

Vieira also wrote that the ICC Americas Women’s Tournament for this year has been pushed back a week from the originally announced dates. The tournament will now take place in the Cayman Islands from April 22-29. It is unknown if the USACA Women’s Tournament, currently scheduled for March 9-11, will also be pushed back.