The tournament was scheduled to take place from March 28 to April 8 in Cairo, Egypt, but was cancelled after a number of countries expressed their unwillingness to let their children travel to the strife-torn country.Zimbabwe had lobbied to host the AJC finals, but ITF chose Botswana who have hosted the tournament before and the dates for the tournament remain the same.ITF did not give the reasons for opting for Botswana, but Tennis Zimbabwe vice-president Regis Bhunu in an earlier interview said they normally gave first preference to countries that have hosted the tournament before.“These tournaments (Africa Junior Championships) will now take place in Botswana. Dates will remain the same. All players who have entered these tournaments will remain on the entry list of the new venue and country. Players do not have to take any action unless they wish to withdraw…,” said a statement on ITF website.Zimbabwe has for the past two years been hosting the zonal qualifiers of the competition with the country having hosted the recent one early last month at Harare Sports Club. Eight players, Tadiwa Chinamo, Nicole Dzenga, Ngoni Chiwewete, Keren Muswere, Ronzai Saurombe, Taremeredzwa Mariga, Valeria Bhunu and Thabile Tshatedi, will represent the nation.The southern African country has never hosted the AJC finals, but players such as Takanyi Garan’anga and the Black siblings Byron, Wayne and Cara, have won the trophy.The AJC serves as the African regional qualifying event for the Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup by BNP Paribas and the World Junior Tennis Competition, the ITF international team competitions for players of the 16 and under and 14 and under age groups respectively.Meanwhile Zimbabwe have failed in their bid to qualify for the World Team Cup 2011 wheelchair tennis quads section to be hosted by South Africa from April 25 to May 1.South Africa and Great Britain have been given the wildcard entries with Zimbabwe placed a distant fifth on the alternative countries after Japan, Poland, Malaysia and Chile.Wheelchair Tennis Association of Zimbabwe had been hoping to send Alex Mkandla and Harry Piki to compete at the World Team Cup in South Africa.
