New ICC tournament: U19 Womens World Cup

[ray]

The inaugural ICC U19 Womens WC is scheduled for January 2023 after originally being set for 2021.
https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/icc- ... 23-1296787

ICC CEO Geoff Allardice: "We are looking at a similar structure to the Men's Under-19 World Cup in terms of the number of teams and the opportunity for associate members to participate,"

Are Associates invited to the inaugural tournament? The activity of the new USA Cricket U19 womens team suggests "yes".
That would mean a holding an Americas qualifier sometime this summer or fall. The ICC appear to have given the USA a headstart for this and the American youth are taking part in their first tour:
https://emergingcricket.com/news/usaw-u ... -windward/
Whether Associates are part of 2023 or not, the USA will be clear favourite to be the Americas representative when qualifiers are held.

Canada? Typically, no information on Cricket Canada website for U19 women. Are they doing anything for our U19 women. Do we have an U19 womens team? Probably not. We can barely organize a practice for our full Womens team.

[Victorian]

Other countries have recognized that the medium term future of cricket is women’s. They are going big on women’s and girls cricket. There’s going to be money in it. CC is behind the trend and it’s too late to field a competitive team for this summer but not too late to develop a team for the next u19 WC.

[timmyj51]

The ICC appear to have given the USA a headstart for this...


"Appear"??? Old boy, ICC hell bent on giving "Team USA" as much "headstart" as they
can over all other Associates.

[ray]

South Africa will host the inaugural 16-team tournament in January 2023. The initial indication from the ICC CEO was that it would be similar to the U19 Men's world cup. So we'll likely see a single qualifier from each of the 5 regions. The Americans have a lock on our region's qualifier with no mention of an U19 team from Cricket Canada.

I wonder whether Brazil has an U19 women's program. Will they surpass Canada at the U19 level, too?