While most eyes in the non-test world will be on the ICC World Cup Qualifier in South Africa in the first half of April, there will be another tournament going on in Brazil - the eighth South American Championship.

For the first time in several years, the teams will be actual national teams, rather than teams such as the Ecuador team that contained only one player who lived in the country in the last tournament, or the "Guyana" Masters that were the champions last time out - actually a team of West Indians from Miami.

The teams participating are hosts Brazil, Chile, Peru and the Argentina A team. Being the strongest cricketing nation in the region (outside of Guyana of course) Argentina have sent their A team in recent years.

There are some absentees from the region though, most notably Suriname, the second highest ranked South American side. This is no doubt due to the tournaments status as an unofficial event - perhaps some ICC funding could see this made into an official development event.

The tournament's fixtures are as follows:

8 April: Brazil v Chile
9 April: Argentina A v Peru
10 April: Argentina A v Chile
11 April: Brazil v Peru
12 April: Chile v Peru
12 April: Brazil v Argentina A

The last two matches will be Twenty20 matches -a first for this event. All matches will be held at the Sao Paulo Athletic Club - the home of the Brazilian cricket museum.