The U19 domestic cricket tournament kicked off on Tuesday with Uafato Fagalo winning their pool game against the Rising Stars.

The Tournament Director, Sinipao Samitioata Fealofani, said the tournament is part of Samoa's preparations for the U19 World Cup Qualifier.

"The U19 program that is ongoing right now is in preparation for the World Cup Qualifier U19 which will be hosted next year," he said in an interview. 

"Our hope and aim are to select players who are based locally to represent our country next year. For your information, this is the first year to host a tournament where only local teams are attending and are done with 40 overs. 

"This is due to conditions from the International Cricket Council which a team won't be able to qualify if they haven't played with 40 overs."

And for the girl's division, they will continue with 20-overs as usual with the tournament for both divisions currently underway at the Garden Oval, Tuanaimato.

Sinipao indicated that they've decided to change their strategy and focus on local talent to represent the country next year. 

"We would also like to have a U19 for Savai'i, as you've seen in many years there are players from abroad that always come over to Samoa to play for our country. 

"But this year, we want to change that by choosing our local players to represent Samoa next year. 

We understand that with the travel restrictions I don't think our players from overseas can travel during training."

The Samoa International Cricket Association has opted to train the local players for the World Cup Qualifier in 2022.

Sinipao says he has seen so much potential and improvement in the competition compared to previous years.

"What I have seen in this tournament is there's a lot of improvement. By improvement, I mean in the previous years before the tournament started, the people would have already predicted the winning team and will keep an eye on that team," he added.

"But now it's a whole new case. Teams are really competitive, the new teams, the returning teams, they are just too competitive and it is a great competition so far."

There are 12 teams in the men's division which has been divided into two pools while the women have eight teams which was cut to six.

The tournament director was unsure whether the two teams have dropped out or are still a team as the two teams have yet to make an appearance on the field.