US Juniors begin tour of England

The itinerary for the international Tour of the Under-17 USA team to England has been finalized at last, and the tour will begin on August 14, 2008. The USA Team will be playing four 40-over and two 20-over matches during their visit.

Unfortunately, it proved to be impossible to schedule any matches with an English Under-15 team because of their already pre-arranged schedule, Hopefully, this will happen in 2009 and beyond, as the idea of U-15 cricket gets more established in world cricket circles.

The USA team contains several players who have already proved themselves in international competition. Among them are Akash Jaganathan, Jason Fox, who is an accomplished batsman, bowler, and keeper from Kansas; Pranay Suri, who captained the Western region team which won the US National championship.and who also performed extremely well in the recently concluded Americas U-15 championship in Bermuda.

Other squad members include: Vinay Suri, an opening bowler who is also a top-order batsman on the winning squad in the US U19 national tournament; Alok Mehta, a bowler who won the Man-of-the-Match award during the recently concluded US Junior National tournament in California; Adhiraj Watave, a talented all-rounder who is the youngest player on the team; Deep Sathe, a legspin bowler who has taken five wickets a few times in youth games and is also extremely strong batsman with the bat.

Chanakya Lokam is an opening batsman who played in the U15 Nationals and has been training in India. Gaurav Ambekar is a combative batsman who punishes the ball often; and Navneet Wariach is a consistent offspin bowler and a utility batsman. All in all, this is a team with all the skills and experience that has earned top honours for USA junior squads for the past three years in international matches, and it is expected to prove as much in its tour of England. The team arrives on August 14 in England, and returns to the USA on August 23.

August 15 40-over fixture v Treeton CC
August 17 20-over fixture v Treeton CC
August 19 40-over fixture v Anston CC
August 20 40-over fixture v Sheffield United
August 21 20-over fixture v Anston CC
August 22 20-over fixture v Killamarsh CC