Schedule announced for ACC Under-19 Elite Cup
The schedule has been announced for the ACC Under-19 Elite Cup to be played in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia during 18-29 August 2007.
Hong Kong Cricket Association
22-Jun-2007
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Hong Kong is placed in Group B of the 10-team event alongside hosts Malaysia, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Qatar. Group A is comprised of UAE, Singapore, Thailand, Nepal and Oman.
The tournament will be used as a qualifying tournament for the ICC Under-19 World Cup 2008 to be played in Malaysia. As hosts, Malaysia automatically qualifies for the World Cup, taking one of the slots allocated to Asian teams. Therefore the winner of the ACC Under-19 Elite Cup tournament (or the next qualifier if Malaysia becomes the champion) will have to play a match against the runner-up of an Under-19 tournament from the Europe Region, with the winner going through to the Under-19 World Cup 2008.
But there is also a down-side. Teams that finish in the bottom two places of the ACC Elite Cup will be demoted to the ACC Challenge Cup and will face another tournament to be played in Thailand in January 2008.
Teams will start arriving in Kuala Lumpur on 18th August and the competition proper will start two days later. Hong Kong faces a tough assignment at the tournament, with their opening match on 20th August against Qatar at Club Aman followed by Kuwait at Bayuemas Oval the next day. On 23rd August, Hong Kong will play Malaysia at the Selangor Turf Club and then Afghanistan on the 24th at Kinrara Oval. Depending on Hong Kong's placing after the group stage of the tournament, they'll be facing semi-finals and/or play-off matches on 27th and/or 28th August. The tournament final will be played at Kinrara Oval on 29th August.
As part of its preparations for the tournament in Malaysia, the Hong Kong Under-19 team will undertake a tour to Sri Lanka, where they will play a number of practise matches against local selections under the tutelage of coach Lal Jayasinghe. The Hong Kong Under-19 Team and details of the Sri Lanka tour, which was originally scheduled during Easter 2007, will be announced shortly.
The Hong Kong Under-19 Team will be led in Malaysia and Sri Lanka by Courtney Kruger. He'll be hoping Hong Kong can improve on their performance at the ACC Under-19 Cup 2005, when his young team were beaten by Kuwait at the quarter-final stage of the 15 team event. A number of the players from 2005, including Irfan and Nadeem Ahmed, are likely to return to the Hong Kong side for the 2007 competition.
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