American Challenge begins in LA

Forget the "International All-Star" shambles from last month. Today, in California, the most serious and most credible attempt so far to take big-time cricket to the United States gets under way. The five-match AXN America Challenge starts today at Woodley Cricket Field, Van Nuys, in suburban Los Angeles, between Australia 'A' and India 'A'. The tournament is being conducted with the co-operation of the USACA, ACB and the BCCI. WorldTel are promoting the tournament which will be telecast live into India by Sony TV's AXN channel.

Though for both countries the main cricketing focus is currently in other parts of the world - India, with the role in the Toronto series just ended, and with Australia, the tour of Sri Lanka under way - but the success or otherwise of this series will be watched closely as future plans to take international cricket to the USA are formulised, with hopefully the flow-on effect of fostering interest in the game locally. The USACA have already expressed their intention to make the series an annual event, with full national teams playing in official one-day internationals in future. Plans to make this inaugural series a three-way event including West Indies 'A' fell through after the WI were invited at short notice to take part in what is now the Toronto Cricket Festival.

Both Australia and India have sent strong sides to Los Angeles. Australia 'A' includes six players with ODI experience (Adam Gilchrist, Damien Martyn, Shane Lee, Brad Young, Andrew Symonds, Michael Di Venuto), with captain Gilchrist having been a member of the victorious World Cup side on final day in June. India 'A', led by VVS Laxman, includes four players with full Test or ODI experience, the others being Rahul Sanghvi, Harbhajan Singh, and Dodda Ganesh.

Unlike some past exhibition cricket events in the US, this series will be played on a genuine cricket ground, Woodley Park Cricket Fields being in continuous use throughout the summer by the Southern California Cricket Association.

Matches will be played on Wednesday 15, Thursday 16, Saturday 18, Sunday 19 and Tuesday 21 September. An extra challenge as part of the America Challenge comes with the start time each day - play due to begin at 8am Pacific Daylight Time. This may well have been dictated by the Indian television market, this being 8.30pm IST. (Sunrise today in Van Nuys, Ca. is 6.34am local.) The tournament is not being televised live into Australia.

Squads:

Australia A: Adam Gilchrist (capt), Damien Martyn, Ryan Campbell, Brad Creevey, Gerard Denton, Michael Di Venuto, Lea Hansen, Brad Hodge, Brett Lee, Shane Lee, Corey Richards, Andrew Symonds, Brad Young. Coach: Allan Border.

India A: VVS Laxman (capt), Sameer Dighe (vc), Vijay Bharadwaj, Dodda Ganesh, Devendra Bundela, Mohammad Kaif, Devangh Gandhi, Harbhajan Singh, Virendra Shewag, Rahul Sanghvi, Jai Prakash Yadav, Ashish Nehra, S Sriram and SS Das.