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Ireland Under 19’s arrived yesterday in the Netherlands seeking the one qualification spot for the 2014 ICC Under 19 Cricket World Cup.
The Pepsi ICC European U19 Division 1 World Cup Qualifier (WCQ) gets under way today with six teams competing for one spot in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup in the UAE in 2014. They will join the ten ICC full members, hosts the UAE and four qualifiers from the other four regions – Afghanistan, Canada, Namibia and Papua New Guinea.

Scotland won this tournament the last time it was played in 2010, and will no doubt be looking to retain their title. Their squad has a core of players who have come right up through the Scottish youth system. Four players from the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup in 2012 return for this tournament, so Scotland will look to their experience to take them to another tournament.

Ireland will also be backing themselves to qualify for yet another ICC U19 Cricket World Cup, and like Scotland have a team full of players who have come up through their youth system, five of whom participated in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup last year. Two of their players have played for Leinster in the new Irish inter-provincial tournament, whilst Ben Wylie played in the annual varsity match for Cambridge University against Oxford University in England earlier this year. He’ll be hoping to have a more successful time bowling in this tournament as that match saw him on the receiving end of the first triple century in the history of the fixture by Sam Agarwal.

Tyrone Kane is the Ireland Under 19 captain.

The Netherlands will be looking to qualify for their first ICC U19 Cricket World Cup since 2000, but they will have to do it without the talented 16 year old left-arm spinner Daniel Doram, who is not eligible to play in this tournament. They will perhaps look to Vivian Kingma, who has played twice for the seniors in the YB40 this year, to lead their bowling attack, and they also field the Zulfiqar triplets, who played with much success in the Pepsi ICC European U15 tournament in Guernsey last year.

The two Channel Island sides – Guernsey and Jersey – are both currently adopting a youth policy at senior level, so players for both teams in this tournament will be looking to stake their claim for a place in their respective senior squads. Some of the players have already done so, with Jersey picking two players who were in their Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division Six winning squad and Guernsey picking four players who were in their Pepsi ICC European Division One squad in Sussex this year.

Denmark are the promoted team, having won Pepsi ICC European U19 Division Two in the Isle of Man back in 2011. They’re playing at this level for the first time since 2009. They field two players who played in the Pepsi ICC European Division One tournament at which Denmark finished as runners-up. They will be hoping to go one better in this tournament and qualify for their first ICC U19 Cricket World Cup since 1998.

The tournament will be played at four venues in the Netherlands from 2 August to 8 August. With only one place available in the World Cup, it’s set to be a fiercely competitive event.

For live scoring, fixtures and other details about the tournament please click here.

Squads

Ireland: Tyrone Kane (C); Mark Adair; Rory Anders; David Barr; Scott Campbell; Peter Chase; Rishi Chopra; Lee Cole; Peter Eakin; James Mccollum; George Mckinley; Cormac Mcloughlin; Alistair Shields; Ben Wylie

Denmark: Raja Basit Javed (C); Saad Hasnaat Ahmad; Saif Ali Ahmad; Adeel Akhtar; Aqeel Amjad; Anders Bulow; Mads Henriksen; Mukarram Hussain; Khizar Saleem Javaid; Mati Malik; Mads Nyeng; Mads Rasmussen; Chris Rasmussen; Saim Saeed.

Guernsey: Joshua Kirk (C); Lucas Barker; Toby Belton; Isaac Damarell; Sam Hale; Andrew Le Page; Luke Le Tissier; Jordon Martel; Jason Martin; Dane Mullen; Oliver Nightingale; Will Stephenson; Matthew Stokes; James Wilkes-Green

Jersey: Alexander Cooke (C); John Donaldson; James Duckett; Jake Dunford; Edward Fricker; Jonty Jenner; Ben Kynman; Stephen Le Maistre; Jack Maton; Paul Mccafferty; Rhys Palmer; Callum Rabet;Benjamin Rive; Liam Vallois

Netherlands: Rahil Ahmed; Wessel Coster; Tim De Kok; Tim Etman; Mahesh Hans; Reinier Kalis; Vivian Kingma; Joost Kroesen; Assad Saleemi; Benjamin Thornton; Raoul Wouters; Sikander Zulfiqar; Saqib Zulfiqar; Asad Zulfiqar

Scotland: Ross Mclean (C); Niall Alexander; Alexander Baum; William Edwards; Michael English; Nicholas Farrar; Chayank Gosain; Lyle Hill; Gavin Main; Alexander Muir; Abdullah Sabri; Kyle Stirling; Andrew Umeed; Mark Watt

The Ireland Management team of Ryan Eagleson, Abigail Doyle, Helen Caird and Brian O’Rourke.

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