New format for European U-17 Championship

The European Under-17 Division One Championship begins in Dundee on Tuesday and the matches will be played over two days instead of the traditional one-day format.

"After last year's inaugural U-19 two-day format event, ICC Europe management and the ECC cricket committee decided that the format should be trialed at the U-17 level, which is an age where huge learning opportunities take place," ICC European development manager Richard Holdsworth said.

"The format worked extremely well at the U-19 level where bowlers and captains had to learn about how to bowl sides out and think more tactically about the game rather than just stem the flow of runs which they are used to in the 50-over format.

"A bowler taking nine wickets in a match bowling 34 overs of spin does not happen in one-day cricket, nor does a No. 7 batsman scoring 140, a No. 9 scoring 50 or bowlers bowling to four slips and two gullies - these sorts of performances from last year create huge new skills and learning experiences and the thoughts of the cricket committee was that this should happen even earlier than U-19."

Ireland won the European U-17 Championship for the past two years but will face stiff competition from hosts Scotland, who have won it thrice. Netherlands and Denmark are the other two teams in the competition.