The 2009 ICC Americas Under 19 Championship gets underway in Toronto, Canada today, with two big prizes at stake, naturally one being the regional Under 19 championship title, with the other on offer an opportunity to take part in the global Under 19 World Cup qualifying tournament later this year. Thus two prizes for the winning team, while in this event, the runners-up will also snatch some glory by gaining qualification to the global qualifier.

In previous Under 19 regional championships, the winning team gained automatic qualification to the Under 19 World Cup, but now, the top two finishers will join eight other regional qualifiers (two per region) in a ten team event to determine who goes forward to the next Under 19 World Cup in 2010.

This is the fifth time the Americas Under 19 tournament will be held, with previous crowns shared between Canada (twice), the USA, and Bermuda, the defending champions. Logic says the 2009 champion, and the two global qualifiers, will come from within this group of three participating countries, simply based on performances and results of previous tournaments.

However, the competitive Cayman Islands team have often been closer than results perhaps show, and could possibly challenge the dominance of the top three, while Argentina and the Bahamas can not be counted out from causing an upset here and there and perhaps impacting on the final placings, although it is likely that these two teams will be battling it out to avoid sixth place, and with it relegation to the newly created Under 19 Americas Division 2.

A positive sign of the times in regional junior cricket is in fact the emergence of a Division 2, which will include teams such as Suriname, Chile, Belize, amongst others perhaps, plus the sixth placed team from this forthcoming event in Toronto. The Division 2 tournament is scheduled to take place later this year, and the winner will gain promotion to the next regional Under 19 Division 1 tournament. It is heartening to see the development of the game to such a level in the region, that more and more teams are able to participate in formal ICC tournaments at age group level.

The Under 19 Championship begins tomorrow at the King City grounds, and finishes on Saturday 11th after a full schedule of round-robin fixtures. Tomorrow sees defending champions Bermuda taking on Argentina, hosts Canada meeting Cayman Islands, and the USA playing the Bahamas. All matches are 50 over contests. The tournament will be officiated by the ICC Americas Elite Panel of umpires.