WT20 Qualification heats up, but 50-over uncertainties remain

After a comparatively quiet few weeks in Associates cricket, the next couple of months promise an extraordinary amount of on-field action, with more than half of the ICC's Associate Members having competitive internationals to look forward to in the coming weeks. All 51 Associates (52 if you count the United States) will take the field between now and November 3, with seven of the remaining eight World T20 Sub-Regional Qualifiers, plus the Asia Cup Qualifier and the Africa T20 Cup all taking place in the space of ten weeks.

First up though is the South American Cricket Championship, which returns for its 15th edition, hosted this year by Colombia at the Los Pinos Polo club in Bogota. The four-day tournament, which begins on Thursday (August 23), will provide some welcome international competition for South American Associates Mexico, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Argentina and Costa Rica who are rarely invited to ICC events, and indeed for Uruguay and the hosts themselves who are not yet ICC members. Alongside the men's competition, teams from Peru, Mexico, Chile and Brazil will contest the ninth edition of the women's tournament. For the latter three the matches will be their first recognised T20 Internationals, T20I status in the women's game