USA rivals agree on Under-19 squad

The ongoing and increasingly bitter row over who has the right to run US cricket rumbles on, but at least the immediate threat of USA being thrown out of the Under-19 World Cup qualifiers has been avoided.

Last month, the ICC gave the two factions vying for control - the USA Cricket Association and the Council of League Presidents - a deadline by which they had to agree on a squad for the tournament, otherwise USA would be expelled. Although the selection process appears to have been far from harmonious, the ICC has been advised by solicitors acting for the two that both parties are happy with the outcome.

Ten of those named in the 14-man team were common to both the USACA and CLP, and so each agreed to nominate two more to make up the full complement. Although there has been no agreement on who should manage the tour - it is reported that Selwyn Caesar, the USACA treasurer, is the likely appointment - the good news is that the USA have not been expelled.

There has been some criticism of the ICC for extending the deadline by which the squad had to be announced, but Malcolm Speed, its chief executive, made it clear why that had to be done. "We make no apology for allowing every opportunity for a group of 14 young men to represent their country," he said. "They should not be punished because administrators cannot agree on the name of the manager."

An ICC spokesman added that the "misinformation circulating at the moment is disappointing, and reflective that people associated with cricket in the USA seem to be more interested in promoting a sense of disunity and attempting to score points rather than addressing the fundamental issues inside the country."