- USA Cricket thanks and praises all involved with Men’s Under 19 National Championships as Mid-Atlantic Zone crowned champions
- Nearly 6,000 runs scored and over 200 wickets taken across 16 completed matches at the Prairie View Cricket Complex in Houston, Texas
- Individual Awards go to leading run-scorer Rehman Dar, leading wicket-taker Sanjay Krishnamurthi and Player of the Tournament Sai Mukkamalla
USA Cricket has hailed a hugely successful Men’s Under 19 National Championships which concluded yesterday with Mid-Atlantic Zone being crowned as National Champions after 16 matches between the 8 teams that involved 112 young cricketers from all across America and beyond.
The tournament saw a return to cricket on the national stage in the USA for the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tournament was completed successfully thanks to the implementation of a ‘bubble’ environment for the duration of the tournament for all players and support staff, and a strict no-contact policy with participants. USA Cricket is pleased to report zero positive COVID-19 tests were returned throughout the tournament.
On the pitch there were close to 6,000 runs scored, more than 225 wickets taken and over 100 catches held in a tournament that was keenly contested by all 8 teams. The turf-wickets and facilities on offer at the Prairie View Cricket Complex enhanced the tournament and helped to provide a fantastic experience that is sure to help the development of these young cricketers.
A snapshot of all 6 days of the National Championship
USA Cricket Chief Executive, Iain Higgins, commented, “USA Cricket would like to thank all of the players, coaches, managers, umpires, scorers, medical staff, support staff, and other volunteers and members of the media that have all contributed to making this such a successful event. This was always going to be an ambitious project, but we are delighted to have been able to deliver such a high-quality event, which would not have been possible without a huge team effort by so many people. On behalf of the USA Cricket Board, I would like to pay tribute to and thank each and every one of those who played a role.”
“I would like to particularly thank everyone at the Prairie View Cricket Complex who went above and beyond to provide the facility to USA Cricket in such excellent condition throughout the entire tournament, and our partners at American Cricket Enterprises who provided additional funding and their experienced operational staff to support the overall team effort to deliver the event. This is exactly the sort of partnership and support that was envisaged when USA Cricket partnered with ACE and we are delighted that the event seemed to have captured the imagination of the US cricket community and set a new standard for domestic cricket events in the USA. We look forward to building on this progress in the coming months, with similar National Championships provisionally scheduled for Men, Women and Women’s U19’s later in the year.”
?WHAT a week of cricket!
An amazing opportunity for 112 young cricketers from all across USA?? to shine on the National Stage
Congratulations to all players + teams for representing so proudly,?Mid Atlantic Zone as Tournament Champions? and the 3 Individual Award Winners? pic.twitter.com/8E7C0qRVC4
— USA Cricket (@usacricket) April 11, 2021
Chair of the Cricket Committee and USA Cricket Board Member, Sushil Nadkarni, said, “On behalf of the Cricket Committee, I would like to congratulate everyone involved in what was a thrilling week of cricket in Texas. The standard of cricket on show and the commitment from all players, coaches, managers and support staff combined to make this the strongest men’s youth cricket event ever staged in America.”
“I was hugely impressed by the performance of many of the young cricketers and, while there is no doubt that Mid-Atlantic Zone were worthy champions, I was delighted with the general level of performance and quality on show throughout the week. I would also like to thank everyone in the wider community for their phenomenal levels of support in uniting behind our common goal of improving cricket opportunities for these young men.”
“The selectors are going to have a very tricky task now of narrowing the national squad down to a smaller group who they believe are most likely to represent Team USA at the ICC U19 Regional Qualifier this summer, from which we are targeting qualification to the 2022 Men’s Under 19 World Cup. This is particularly exciting given that we are hosting the event, and we will have announcements with further details of next steps in this process in the coming weeks.”
Chair of the USA Cricket Committee, Sushil Nadkarni presents Mid Atlantic captain Nitish Mahesh with the National Championships Trophy
Individual Award Winners
USA Cricket would like to congratulate all of the players who participated this week and there were many fantastic and notable individual performances throughout the week. There were three individual awards, which were awarded as follows:
Leading Wicket Takers
5th Place: Ali Sheikh (South West Zone): 7 wickets
4th Place: Soorya Selvakumar (South West Zone): 8 wickets
3rd Place: Elton Tucker Jr. (South Zone): 8 wickets
2nd Place: Gautham Ravindran (Colts): 8 wickets
1st Place: Sanjay Krishnamurthi (West Zone Reds): 9 wickets
Team USA’s Ali Khan presents West Zone Reds’ Sanjay Krishnamurthi with the Leading Wicket Taker Award
Leading Run Scorers
5th Place: Ali Sheikh (South West Zone): 155 runs
4th Place: Slade-Lee Van Staden (Colts): 175 runs
3rd Place: Sai Mukkamalla (Mid-Atlantic Zone): 254 runs
2nd Place: Skanda Rohit Sharma (West Zone Reds): 267 runs
1st Place: Rehman Dar (South West Zone): 317 runs
USA Men’s Head Coach J Arun Kumar presents South West Zone batsman Rehman Dar with the Leading Runscorer Award
Player of the Tournament
The Player of the Tournament was decided on a cumulative vote by the umpires on a 3-2-1 basis from every game at the National Championships.
Winner: Sai Mukkamalla (Mid-Atlantic Zone)
USA Cricket Board Member Suraj Viswanathan presents Mid-Atlantic batsman Sai Mukkamalla with the Player of the Tournament Award
Final Standings
The 16 matches of the National Championships were well contested with the final classification matches going right to the wire leaving the final finishing positions as follows:
8th Place: Midwest Zone
7th Place: West Zone Blues
6th Place: East Zone
5th Place: Colts
4th Place: South Zone
3rd Place: West Zone Reds
Runners-Up: South West Zone
Champions: Mid-Atlantic Zone
Tournament Coverage
The tournament played out to a great audience on social media too, with more than 850,000 people reached through the @USACricket channels on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, combined with over 125,000 engagements throughout the week. The clipped highlights and other videos were particularly popular with more than 250,000 views across all platforms.
The basic live-stream coverage with CricClubs live-scoring graphics proved popular too with more than 150,000 views on the USA Cricket YouTube channel generated from the 10 games of the 16 that the one-camera stream was available from.
For the full statistics from the tournament and to see scorecards and further details from all 16 matches, please visit https://usacricket-dev.cdn-pi.com/tournament-stats/.
For the photos from the tournament which are available for editorial use, please visit https://usacricket-dev.cdn-pi.com/photos. All images are ©USA Cricket/Peter Della Penna
