Photo Credit: USA Cricket
- Prairie View Cricket Complex in Texas will play host to the first ever USA Cricket Men’s National Championship from November 14th – 20th, 2021
- 8 teams with the best male cricketers from across the United States will play in the final National Championships to be held this year
- USA Men’s U19 team to be included and West Zone to field two separate teams
USA Cricket is delighted to announce that the USA Cricket Men’s National Championships will be played at the MLC National Cricket Center at Prairie View Cricket Complex this November. The tournament’s matches will be played from November 14th – 20th and will bring together the best male cricketers in the country playing each other in the 50-Over format. Teams will arrive in Texas on November 12th and depart on November 21st.
USA Cricket is pleased to be able to announce this Men’s event, which will be the final of the four National Championships scheduled for 2021. The Men’s U19 National Championships was held at MLC National Cricket Center at Prairie View Cricket Complex in April, and then over recent weeks, the Sistar Mortgage Women’s and Sistar Mortgage Women’s U19 National Championships were successfully completed at the Broward County Stadium in Lauderhill, Florida.
The 2021 Men’s National Championship will provide a platform for the best male cricketers in the United States to push for places in the 2022 Men’s National Training Group and for selection in the USA Cricket Men’s National Team in what promises to be a busy period ahead in terms of both domestic and international cricket.
Chair of the USA Cricket Committee, Sushil Nadkarni, reflected, “Throughout the past eighteen months, we have worked hard to develop and implement robust COVID protocols to enable players to safely play in USA Cricket national tournaments of this size and scale. Huge credit must go to the volunteers, staff, players and officials who have successfully navigated these issues across the three National Championships held so far this year, and we are all looking forward to completing the full set of National Championships with the first Men’s National Championships ever held by USA Cricket, and the first event of this nature since 2015. It is particularly exciting to be able to announce that the USA Men’s Under 19 Team will take their place in the event as the eighth team. This will help to continue to expose our most talented U19 players to the highest possible standards of cricket, and give them opportunities to press for inclusion in the senior national squads, and it aligns with the strategic focus area in our Foundational Plan of investing into youth development. It will be a welcome reward, not just for the players, but also for those parents who have provided great support to help them reach this level, and will also help provide some consolation for the recent decision by the ICC to cancel the Men’s U19 Cricket World Cup Regional Qualifier.”
Photo Credit: LinkedIn profile photo of Sushil Nadkarni
Richard Done, USA Cricket Operations Director, said, “USA Cricket is embarking on an exciting journey, and a key component of this is to establish and then develop our domestic pathways. Following the Men’s Nationals, we will have completed all four National Championships, our pinnacle domestic events in the 50-over game. That will become our benchmark moving forward, and we will be working with Leagues to expand this part of the domestic structure as we look ahead to 2022. Alongside Minor League and Major League Cricket in the T20 format, the build out of this domestic structure and pathway will provide players with more clarity about where they need to perform as they strive to make the USA National Men’s T20 and ODI teams.”
There will be 8 squads of 14 players each selected by the National & Zonal Men’s Selection Panels in the coming weeks, with the teams confirmed as the following;
- East Zone
- Mid-Atlantic Zone
- South Zone
- Midwest Zone
- South West Zone
- West Zone Blues
- West Zone Reds
- USA Cricket Under 19s
All six USA Cricket Zones will be represented by one side each, with the exception of the West Zone, who, like in the U19 Men’s National Championship, will be split into two teams of ‘West Zone Reds’ and ‘West Zone Blues’. The Blues will cover the geographical region from Northern California and north to Oregon and Washington, and the Reds will cover Southern California and east to Nevada and Arizona.
The eighth team for 2021 will be the USA Men’s Under 19 Team, which will provide an exciting opportunity for the best younger players in the country to play together as a team in a highly competitive environment.
Further details about the format, schedule and coverage of the event will be announced in due course, as well as opportunities to get involved as team coaches, team managers and tournament volunteers.
Name of Author: USA Cricket
USA Cricket (USAC) is the governing body for cricket in the United States, overseeing the national men’s, women’s, and youth teams. It also manages Major League Cricket, the premier domestic Twenty20 competition in the U.S.
