The first (1st) year will see the support on the remodeling of the High Performance Training Centre in Poços de Caldas, with improvements in training and physio facilities as well as to the governing body’s office areas. The venue recently hosted the U15 and U19 Men’s South American Championships (JSAC) in August 2024, and will also be hosting the Women’s South American Championships 2024 (WSAC) tournament (both senior and U19s) in September. The second (2nd) phase will oversee improvements in the playing infrastructure with investment in turf wickets and the first indoor nets to provide access to quality playing and training pitches for performance, club and development cricketers.

The final year of the partnership agreement will focus on supporting the development of the coaching staff who work across the hubs, with an exchange programme for Cricket Brasil to come to the UK and learn about the community work and pathway that exist in Surrey. This marks the second (2nd) such partnership in place for Surrey Cricket with an Associate Cricket Board, having invested through “Cricket Builds Hope” charity in Rwanda since 2016, and has been part of the plan for the development of the International stadium in Kigali (Gahanga International Cricket stadium).

Both the men’s and women’s tournaments will be held from Oct 03rd – 06th, 2019 and will be played across El Cortijo Polo Club ground (For men’s group stage fixtures) and the Lima Cricket and Football Club (women’s group stage fixtures). Finals for both the men’s and women’s title’s will be played at the Lima Cricket and Football Club. Cricket Peru will also be hosting the Junior South American Championships for the U-13 and U-17 teams from 27th – 30th Sep 2019, at Cambridge College and the Lima Cricket and Football Club.

The men’s edition will be the 16th edition of the iconic tournament, while the women’s will be the 10th edition of the tournament. The 2018 edition of women’s category was played with official T20I status between Brazil, Peru, Chile and Mexico. For the 2019 edition, Argentina Women, who are multiple times winner of the tournament in the past, will be back again in the tournament after missing out the 2018 edition. Brazil Women are the defending Champions from the 2018 edition held in Colombia.

The women’s edition will see all the participants play each other in a single round-robin format group stage, following the conclusion of which, the top 2 team’s in the points table will contest in the final.

2019 Women’s South American Championships Schedule

For the men’s category, host’s Peru will be competing against the 2018 Champions Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Uruguay. Colombia and Uruguay are not current Associate members under International Cricket Council (ICC) and hence, all the matches involving these two nations will not be considered for official T20I status. Mexico are the defending Champions from the 2018 edition held in Colombia. The men’s edition will see all the participants play each other in a single round-robin format group stage, following the conclusion of which, the top 2 team’s in the points table will contest in the final.

2019 Men’s South American Championships Schedule

Following ICC’s ruling to award T20I status for International matches between Associate member nations and team ranking points towards a global rankings model (which is being worked upon), has given Women’s cricket the recognition it was looking for in the region, despite their presence in the tournament for the past decade now.

Brazil will compete against Mexico, Chile and Peru in the 4-nation Women’s category in the 2018 SACs from Aug 23rd – 26th, 2018. Matches for Peru wouldn’t be official T20I games and won’t count towards ranking points.

Brasil have won the tournament twice in its 9 editions so far, with Argentina being the most successful with 6 titles, but are not taking part in the 2018 edition of the tournament.

Brasil Women’s Squad for 2018 SACs:

Roberta Moretti Avery (Captain), Ana Elisa Vicentin, Alice Teodoro, Denise Souza, Elisa Carvalho, Erika Reinehr, Gabriella Ferreira, Julia Faustino, Laura Agatha, Lindsay Mariano, Maria Eduarda Costa, Narayana Reinehr Ribeiro, Nikki Montiero & Renata Dina de Sousa

The Men’s category has been present for a even longer period of time with Argentina hosting the 14th edition in 2017. Such is the rich history of both Men’s and Women’s cricket in the South American region. Pretty good it sounds that it has been arranged nicely for the past decade and provides the region’s nations much required International cricket exposure.

Most neutrals would only relate to Argentina Men’s team being part of major ICC tournament qualifiers and WCL divisions over the years but Cricket has a good presence in the rest of the countries in the region as well. Many still wouldn’t know that Marylebone Cricket Club has now toured the South American region twice in two years, and has played matches against the Men’s squads from the region’s nations.

Women’s cricket has not always been much popular among all the Associate member nations in South America, with most of the countries not having the adequate player numbers or domestic exposure for growth of Women’s cricket in the region. However, countries like Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico have been competing in the Women’s category in the South American Championships since the 2000’s.

The past couple of seasons has seen significant development being done in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico & Peru for Women’s Cricket and it only bodes well for the future of the sport, now with International T20I status recognition being provided to all T20 matches played between ICC members for Women’s cricket, effective 01st Jul 2018 and for Men’s cricket, effective 01st Jan 2019.

Argentina Women’s team have been the most successful in all the editions held until 2017, having won the tournament more than 4 times compared to 2 wins by Brazil. The 2015 edition was the first time the Women’s tournament got held at the same time as the Men’s competition and has been happening since.

Argentina, however will not be participating in the 2018 edition and the Women’s tournament will be contested between Brazil, Mexico, Chile & Peru. And to add to that, the matches will carry T20I status for the member countries. Disappointing that Argentina Women’s squad will miss out on some Team tanking points.

Mexico Women’s squad for the tournament is being supported by Tech giant, Tech Mahindra, which speaks well for future sponsorships/fundings depending upon their partnership for Mexico Cricket Association.

So much cricket has happened in the past decade in the Women’s category in the region, but perhaps the added status eligibility brings something more on the plate for the teams participating in 2018, with the prospect of good results resulting in good rankings for the team when ICC release their Global rankings for Women’s T20I Team’s.

The event will also showcase Cricket Colombia’s hosting capabilities as they look forward to becoming an Associate member of ICC in the near future.

Cricket Colombia are expected to announce the tournament proper schedule and details soon and from a neutral perspective, it’d be an even bigger initiative if something on the lines of Live Streaming could be arranged for the tournament for the whole World to see and educate itself on what has been a region not much talked about in the global Associate landscape.