Japan to host first ever international tournament

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Four ICC East Asia-Pacific countries -- Fiji, Indonesia, Japan and Tonga -- will compete in the ICC East Asia-Pacific Cricket Challenge 2004 event.

The winner will compete with another EAP nation, Papua New Guinea, together with a further six countries from other ICC Development Program regions (Asia, Europe, Africa and America) at the ICC World Cup Qualifying Series event in Malaysia in February 2005.

The event also sees the Japan Cricket Association hosting an international tournament for the very first time. The venue, Fuji City, has two adjacent grounds, one of which has only recently been completed, said an ICC media release from Fuji City, Japan, on Tuesday.

The teams will play four 50-over matches in the round robin event, concluding on Saturday May 29 with a final and playoff. On the opening day Fiji faces Tonga, while Indonesia takes on hosts Japan.

Two local television stations will also be present on the final day to record short segments for an evening highlights package.

The ICC East Asia-Pacific Cricket Challenge forms part of the ICC World Cup Qualifying Series, where ICC Associate and Affiliate Members from the five Development Program regions compete in a series of qualifying tournaments on their way to a possible place at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007.

This is the fourth international tournament in the East Asia- Pacific Region since the inception of the ICC East Asia-Pacific Development Program. Previous events were the Pacific Cricket Championships (2001 in New Zealand and 2002 in Samoa) and the East Asia Eights (2002 in Perth).