USA to feature in ICC Americas women's championship

The ICC Americas women's championship will be played in Florida starting May 18 and will feature the four teams from last year's inaugural tournament - Argentina, Brazil, defending champions Canada, Bermuda - as well as USA and a development squad from Trinidad & Tobago.

The teams will be divided into groups and play Twenty20s over the first two days and 40-over games after that. The top two teams from the 40-over games will advance to a three-day series to be played in 2010. The winner of that series will advance to the global qualifier. The team sent by T&T, to increase the level of competition in the tournament, will not be eligible for the qualifiers.

Catalina Greloni, the Argentina captain, was optimistic of her side's chances though she acknowledged Canada and Bermuda were much stronger. "We have a young team and yet we have time to go on working together and who knows, maybe in a couple of years we will be nearer the top level of the region," Greloni told the ICC website. "Individually, all the teams have improved their skills and techniques in this last two years but maybe what we are lacking are more games to play. That is something very important as we also need to grow as a team."

She said the tournament allowed players to compete for a spot in the Americas team and play alongside elite players. "America is the largest region and I think that the one that has the largest difference in cricket levels. You can see teams like West Indies who are playing first level cricket against teams like England or New Zealand and at the same time, teams like Chile or Brazil who are starting to compete internationally in South America."

Greloni said her dream was to take Argentina to the World Cup.