ICC U19 Cricket World Cup Americas Qualifier


The ICC U19 Cricket World Cup Americas Qualifier is an international cricket tournament contested by under-19 national teams from the ICC Americas region. The tournament has run bi-annually since 2001, occasionally with more than one division. The tournament serves as a qualification tournament for the Under-19 World Cup. Canada are by far the most successful team overall, winning seven titles, to the three won by the United States and the single title won by Bermuda.

History

Prior to the introduction of the Americas Under-19 Championship in 2001 there was no qualification route for associate and affiliate teams to the U-19 World Cup. As a result, the only Americas team represented in the 1998 competition was the full member, the West Indies.
With the new championship came the possibility for an individual team to qualify for the U-19 World Cup. The winner of each championship would automatically go through to play in the finals the following year.
For the 2000 tournament, a combined Americas team was also given the chance to take part, representing the four longstanding associate members from the region: Canada, USA, Bermuda and Argentina.
2005 ICC U19 Cricket World Cup Americas Qualifier
The tournament featured five teams, the same as at the preceding 2003 edition, but a full USA Squad featured for the first time, to compete at a simple round-robin. The United States finished the tournament undefeated to win its first title, and consequently qualified for the 2006 Under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka. The team had nearly been barred from playing, as part of proposed International Cricket Council sanctions against the United States of America Cricket Association for maladministration, but ICC allowed the participation of the U19 Squad for the 2005 Qualifiers. Canada was the runner-up at the championship, with the Cayman Islands placing third, Bermuda fourth, and Argentina placing last, again finishing winless. The tournament was affected by rain, with two matches being abandoned and another shortened. A feature of the championship was its low scoring, with only four innings above 200 being recorded from the ten matches played. The tournament's leading runscorer, Canadian batsman Trevin Bastiampillai, was the only player to record more than 100 runs, while the leading wicket-taker, and MVP of the tournament was American bowler Abhimanyu Rajp, who took two five-wicket hauls.
In 2009, Under-19 World Cup qualification was changed dramatically and a World Cup Qualifier event was introduced in which the top two teams from each of the ICC regions would compete for the final six places in the U-19 World Cup. In addition to this, the Championship was expanded to two divisions due to the increase in the number of regional teams. The first Division Two tournament took place in 2010.

Participating teams (Division One)

;Legend
  • – Champions
  • – Runners-up
  • – Third place
  • R1 – First round
  • Q – Qualified
  • X – Qualified, tournament cancelled
  • # – Qualified, withdrew
  • — Hosts

Records

Scorecards for some matches from the 2001 tournament are unavailable.
;Highest team scores
;Lowest team scores
;Highest individual scores
;Best bowling figures