USA Cricket announce schedule, squads for National championships

With an eye on ICC Americas Women’s T20 Qualifier and the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers, USA cricket has organized the Regional competition for a place in the National Championship. These regional teams will be divided into four -East, Central, Southwest, and West  - with the first two playing the Eastern Regional Series and the remaining two the Western one. Each team will have 14 players selected on the basis of fitness, skill, and performance.



The Eastern Regional Series will happen in Morrisville, North Carolina from July 2 to July 5. While the Western Regional Series will commence on July 15 with Southwest Region will compete against the West Region in Prairie View, Texas.



Following this Regional series, the teams from both regions will be selected for the USA Senior National Championship which will take place in Florida from August 3 to August 8. The Nationals will be closely followed by the U19 National Championship to be held for the first time ever, from August 11 to August 13 in Florida.



USA Cricket Interim Chair of Women & Girls’ Selectors, Ritesh Kadu, said, “The turf wickets and facilities at Church Street, Morrisville, North Carolina, and the Prairie View Cricket Complex in Texas will provide superb settings for the selectors to see our best players perform in what will no doubt be an extremely competitive Regional Series.”



Talking about his team’s ambition to play in two World Cup qualifiers he added, “We have a wonderful mix of seasoned players, and a number of talented youngsters coming up through the program, and we are looking forward to finding the best players for the USA Women’s Coach, Julia Price, to work with leading into the ICC Americas T20 Qualifier currently scheduled for early September, and the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers in early December.”



Squads for the Regional tournament:



East: Lisa Ramjit (C), Aditiba Chudasana, Anika Kumar, Candacy Atkins-Martin, Disha Dhingra, Holly Charles, Melanie Henry (WK), Moksha Chaudhary, Syeda Abidi, Nithya Sivanandhan, Onika Wallerson, Samantha Ramautar, Sara Farooq, Tranum Chopra.



Central: Shebani Bhaskar (C), Aafia Khazi, Amaraja Patwardhan, Astha Patel, Bhumika Bhadriraju, Claudine Beckford, Geetika Kodali, Janani Suthan, Jessica Willathgamuwa, Mitali Patwardhan (WK), Nadia Gruny, Saba Shah, Swati Mishra, Zeenat Kauser



West: Sindhu Sriharsha (C and WK), Akshatha Rao, Anika Kolan (WK), Chetna Reddy Pagydyala, Erica Rendler, Gargi Bhogle, Isani Vaghela, Jivana Aras, Laasya Mullapudi, Suhani Thadani, Trisha Bhima, Uzma Iftikhar, Yashaaditi Teki



Southwest: Mahika Kandanala (C), Aishani Goswami, Isiri Prasad, Nina Roowala, Pooja Ganesh (WK), Pooja Shah, Rabia Shahid, Ritu Singh, Sai Tanmayi Eyyunni, Sheerin Khorashani, Shreya Deo, Snigdha Paul, Tya Gonsalves, Vidhya Prabhu