The first ever USACA Twenty20 Nationals takes place this weekend, June 17-19, in Newark, New Jersey. On Tuesday, DreamCricket.com published Part 1 of its tournament preview featuring the Atlantic, Central East, South West and North West Regions. The following is a brief look at the other four teams scheduled to compete in the tournament - Central West, New York, North East and South East.

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By Peter Della Penna

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The first ever USACA Twenty20 Nationals takes place this weekend, June 17-19, in Newark, New Jersey. On Tuesday, DreamCricket.com published Part 1 of its tournament preview featuring the Atlantic, Central East, South West and North West Regions. The following is a brief look at the other four teams scheduled to compete in the tournament – Central West, New York, North East and South East. A final confirmed tournament schedule is also listed at the bottom of the preview.

Central West – This lineup is packed with power, but has stumbled during the last two years at national tournaments, unable to make it to the Super League. They’ll be trying to set things right in New Jersey. The squad is captained by explosive USA opening batsman Sushil Nadkarni. Wicketkeeper Rahul Kukreti serves as the team’s vice-captain.

Central West has the most current USA players on its roster of any team in the tournament with four. Ryan Corns, Orlando Baker and Usman Shuja (pictured right/photo courtesy: ICC) all toured Hong Kong in January playing for USA along with Nadkarni. Kukreti and Jignesh Desai have also represented USA in the past. With New York’s Carl Wright and South West’s Ritesh Kadu not participating in this tournament, Kukreti may have a chance to force his way back into the USA team as a keeper for July’s ICC Americas T20 tournament.

Missing from the squad is talented youngster Abbas Jafri, who got rave reviews from those present at both the U-19 and Senior Western Conference in 2010 for his top class batting.

Central West squad – Sushil Nadkarni (captain), Rahul Kukreti (vice-captain), Orlando Baker, Shalil Bhatt, Owen Brown, Ruchir Chabbra, Ryan Corns, Jignesh Desai, Kashyap Desai, Vivek Inampudi, Jermaine Levine, Amir Nanjee, Ankit Mehta, Usman Shuja.

New York – After an embarrassing display in Florida last November at the 50-over Senior Nationals, the New York squad has a lot to prove heading into this tournament. The squad once again packs a big punch in both the batting and bowling departments, but it remains to be seen whether they will function as a unified team or as a bunch of talented individuals.

USA captain Steve Massiah also holds the same role for New York while Barrington Bartley (pictured left) is his deputy. Batsman Clain Williams and seam bowler George Adams have switched allegiances this year, moving from the Atlantic squad to play under Massiah.

Kevin Darlington and Adrian Gordon lead the pace attack for New York. Massiah and Williams have a big responsibility to make runs and they’ll be supported by Glen Hall, Andy Mohammed and Akeem Dodson, who are all pressing for a return to the national team. The biggest news is that both Carl Wright and Rashard Marshall were not named in the squad and it remains to be seen whether or not this will affect their chances for selection to USA’s squad for the ICC Americas T20 tournament next month.

New York squad – Steve Massiah (captain), Barrington Bartley (vice-captain), George Adams, Quasen Alfred, Kevin Darlington, Akeem Dodson, Karan Ganesh, Adrian Gordon, Glen Hall, Andre Kirton, Andy Mohammed, Bryan Murphy, Nicholas Standford, Clain Williams.

North East – The North East Region finished winless and in last place at the 2010 Eastern Conference Tournament in Atlanta and they’ll have a tough time overcoming the opposition this time around as well. Compared to the other teams in the event, they lack the star power to stand toe-to-toe with the opposition and will have to rely on chemistry and a fighting spirit to have any chance at turning things around.

The squad includes several young players including Akhil Husbands, Huen Daley and former North East U-19 captain Chevon McLean. However, the squad will depend heavily on the experience of players like all-rounder Fazal Alam, Timmy Thomas and hard-hitting opener Sharaz Baksh (pictured right), a former Guyana U-19 player, in order to be competitive.

Making matters more difficult for North East is the fact that Srinath Rajagopalan is no longer a part of their squad. Rajagopalan was one of the few bright spots for North East last year, finishing as the leading wicket-taker in the Eastern Conference Tournament in Atlanta with eight scalps, including 4 for 21 in a narrow loss to Atlantic.

The explosive Oneil Powell was a late addition to the squad, along with Kevin Baugh, and that could have an impact on the fortunes of North East.

North East squad – Prasanna Ramaswamy (captain), Sharaz Baksh (vice-captain), Manwar Abassi, Fazal Alam, Kevin Baugh, Huen Daley, Shawn Edwards, Akhil Husbands, Chevon McLean, Everton Nelson, Oneil Powell, Sheldon Smith, Timmy Thomas, Sundaharami Vankjanati.

South East – The region’s squad combines young talent with some fairly grizzled vets. They have the right balance to come in first, but everyone needs to fire. South East is captained by Nasir “Charlie” Javed, whose ESPNcricinfo profile says he will turn 45 two days after the end of the tournament.

Wicketkeeper Steven Taylor (pictured left) is one of only two players in this tournament – along with Hammad Shahid – expected to tour Ireland with the USA U-19 team in July. Bhim George had a scintillating weekend with the bat in the South East inter-league tournament prior to this event and he’ll be expected to provide most of the runs along with Taylor, Japen Patel and Timothy Surujbally.

On the bowling side, the Georgia combination of Anand Tummala and Jibran Gul will have the lion’s share of the pace duties. Spinners Hussain Haidar and Javed are also expected to have important roles to play in the field. Timroy Allen was not picked to be a part of the squad because he did not play in the South East inter-league tournament, allegedly due to a dispute between rival competitions in which he was participating in Orlando.

South East squad – Nasir Javed (captain), Shane Ford, Bhim George, Jibran Gul, Hussain Haidar, Syed Hasan, Moazzam Imtiaz, Dunae Nathaniel, Ishmael Parchment, Japen Patel, Anthony Sahadeo, Timothy Surujbally, Steven Taylor, Anand Tummala.

2011 USACA Twenty20 Nationals Schedule (as of June 15 – subject to change)

The following schedule was obtained from USACA General Manager Manaf Mohamed on Wednesday afternoon. Instead of having Groups A & B determined by rankings from last year’s 50-over tournaments, the schedule has reverted back to an Eastern Conference and Western Conference round robin stage. At the end of the round robin stage, each team will contest a playoff match against the team who finished in the corresponding position in the opposite conference to determine final rankings (i.e. 1st place Eastern vs. 1st place Western, 2nd place Eastern vs. 2nd place Western, etc.).

Watsessing Park in Bloomfield will now be used as a venue instead of Laurel Hill Park in Secaucus. However, that could change as rain is forecast in the area for Friday and the fields at Watsessing Park have a historically poor drainage system. Matches that were scheduled for Watsessing Park for the 2010 USACA U-15 National Tournament had to be moved to other venues when rainfall at the park in the lead up to the event rendered the grounds unplayable.

Conditions permitting, DreamCricket.com will provide live ball-by-ball commentary of all Group A matches taking place at Watsessing Park on Friday and Saturday as well as the 3rd place and championship matches at Weequahic Park on Sunday.

Group A/Western Conference – Central East, Central West, North West, South West
Group B/Eastern Conference – Atlantic, New York, North East, South East

Friday June 17 at Weequahic Park in Newark, NJ
9 a.m. – New York vs. South East
12:30 p.m. – New York vs. North East
4 p.m. – Atlantic vs. South East

Friday June 17 at Watsessing Park in Bloomfield, NJ
9 a.m. – Central West vs. Central East
12:30 p.m. South West vs. Central East
4 p.m. – South West vs. North West

Saturday June 18 at Watsessing Park in Bloomfield, NJ
9 a.m. – North West vs. Central East
9 a.m. – Atlantic vs. North East
12:30 p.m. – Central West vs. North West
12:30 p.m. – North East vs. South East
4 p.m. – South West vs. Central West
4 p.m. – Atlantic vs. New York

Sunday June 19 at Watsessing Park in Bloomfield, NJ
9 a.m. – 7th place playoff: Group A #4 vs. Group B #4
12:30 p.m. – 5th place playoff: Group A #3 vs. Group B #3

Sunday June 19 at Weequahic Park in Newark, NJ
9 a.m. – 3rd place playoff: Group A #2 vs. Group B #2
12:30 p.m. – Championship match: Group A #1 vs. Group B #1
4 p.m. – Tournament Awards Presentation