ICC Americas Division One shifted

The ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 Championship, originally scheduled to be held in Toronto, will now be held from July 17-24 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. ICC Americas Regional Development Manager Martin Vieira said the tournament was moved out of Toronto because the venues there became unavailable after the tournament was originally assigned.

"At the time of planning the event, there wasn't a suitable venue available in Toronto and the Maple Leaf Cricket Club facilities were not available at that time," Vieira told ESPNcricinfo on Wednesday. "I had to make a decision. The Florida venues were discussed with USACA. They think they're okay and a decision was made to move it to Florida, so I'm not about to bring it back to Toronto."

Several recent events that have been played in Fort Lauderdale, including February's ICC Americas U-19 Championship, the 2008 ICC Americas Division One and the last two USACA National Championships, have been split between natural and artificial turf wicket venues. However, Vieira said that all matches at this event will be played on grass wickets.

"They're all going to be on turf wickets," Vieira said. "We're playing two a day in the stadium because they're Twenty20s and the other one will be on a turf wicket as well. So we're playing three games a day but there's a morning and afternoon game at the stadium and one at the other ground in the afternoon."

According to USACA General Manager Manaf Mohamed, the other ground will not be Brian Piccolo Park, which has been a traditional co-host along with the stadium facility at Central Broward Regional Park. Instead, the Boca Raton Cricket Club may be used for the first time. USA will enter the tournament as the defending champs after winning the inaugural ICC Americas Twenty20 championship in Bermuda last June. The top two teams, not including Canada, will move on to the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in the UAE. Canada automatically qualifies due to their current status as an ODI nation.

The ICC Americas Division One had been held as a 50-over event every two years beginning in 2000, but the 50-over championship could become a thing of the past. Canada won the 50-over regional championship in 2010, but as of now Vieira says there are no plans to hold a 50-over event in 2012. "That we'll have for discussion at our forum which starts on Friday in Costa Rica," Vieira said. "With the Associates being sort of led to the Twenty20 World Cup every two years, our focus definitely is on Twenty20."

Teams inside the Americas region will now be reliant on the survival of the ICC World Cricket League in order to get high level exposure to 50-over cricket. USA's next chance to play in a World Cricket League event may be more than a year away in Division Four, due to be held in the summer of 2012. "The World Cricket League which plays 50-over games, there's seven of our countries that are involved in that as well so they can get their 50-overs exposure there. Also Canada is exposed to ODIs and four-day international games so we feel with that sort of global format that all formats of the game are being covered."

Each country participating in the Twenty20 championship has been offered the chance to stay in Florida for a few extra days and play a two or three match bilateral 50-over series, but Vieira says none of the boards are interested.

"We made the offer to the countries but so far none of the countries have indicated that they are interested or willing to stay beyond the date to play any bilateral games," Vieira said. "We've made it quite clear, that as far as the airfare goes they've got that paid. So it would be up to them covering the local costs and the hotels and we've given them a price on that. It's a fairly reasonable price and it's now up to them to make a decision but so far I haven't had any takers."