- Prairie View Cricket Complex in Texas to remain as host with revised event dates of November 15th – 19th, 2021
- 8 teams playing in two groups of four teams with the winners of each group playing in the National Championship final on Friday November 19th
USA Cricket is announcing a minor change to the dates of the USA Cricket Men’s National 50-Over Championships to November 15th – 19th, 2021. The venue remains as the MLC National Cricket Center at Prairie View Cricket Complex. Teams will arrive in Texas on November 13th and depart on November 20th.
The change is required due to a recent change in the dates of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Americas Qualifier which will now finish on November 14th in Antigua. USA Cricket wanted to ensure that all Men’s National Team players selected for Antigua would also be available to participate in the National Championships, so the dates of the domestic event have been pushed back slightly to enable those players to fly back from the Caribbean in time for the first round of matches.
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.
Richard Done, USA Cricket Operations Director, said, “It is important that the first USA Cricket Men’s 50-Over National Championships has all of our best players involved, so we felt that this change of event dates to accommodate the returning National Team players was the right thing to do. It will provide a great platform for our selectors to compare our current and future players in the same 50-over format and facilities. Alongside the successful domestic structure established for women and the girls, the National Championships for Women and U19s (men and women), and the inaugural edition of Minor League Cricket this year, the build out of a fuller domestic structure and pathway will mean that 2021 has seen the best against best in both white-ball formats of the game and in both genders, which is a huge step forward.”
There will be eight participating squads of 14 players each selected by the National & Zonal Men’s Selection Panels to be named over the coming days, 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 Championships, will be split into two teams of ‘West Zone Reds’ and ‘West Zone Blues’. 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 the coming weeks.
