The development of cricket in Africa will be further boosted early next month when Uganda hosts the continent's first Under 19 titles.

Teams representing West Africa, East & Central Africa, Namibia and Kenya will join the host country in Kampala in a tournament which decides the final African qualifier to compete in the World Under 19 Championships in Sri Lanka in 2002.

Kenya arguably goes into the tournament as favourite, its preparation likely to be the best of the five teams, thanks to its development programme.

Regardless of whoever wins, the tournament is immensely important to raising the standard of cricket in the respective countries, providing each with a batch of youngsters exposed to competition at the international level.

It also gives teams such as West Africa and East & Central Africa a gauge of their standard of junior cricket. Neither has fielded under 19 teams before.

The African titles are the first of five under 19 regional titles to be held throughout 2001.

Europe holds its tournament in late July/August, the East Asia-Pacific titles are likely to be staged from August 19-25, the Americas tournament is confirmed for September 13-17 in Philadelphia, while the a date for the Asian Championships is yet to be set, but may possibly be held in the second week of September.

Here is the draw for the African under 19 titles:

Friday, January 5
Kenya v Namibia; Uganda v West Africa; East & Central Africa bye
Saturday, January 6
East & Central Africa v Uganda; Namibia v West Africa; Kenya bye
Sunday, January 7
East & Central Africa v Namibia; Kenya v. West Africa; Uganda bye
Monday, January 8
East & Central Africa v Kenya; Uganda v Namibia; West Africa bye
Tuesday, January 9
East & Central Africa v West Africa; Kenya v Uganda; Namibia bye

Depending on the cooperation of officials from the various teams, 'Beyond The Test World' will profile the teams in the next edition of BTTW, due out just before the African titles commence.

© CricInfo Ltd