ICC U19 World Cup: The transformation from boys to men

Sarfaraz Khan

It was that time of the cricket calendar when a romantic lover of the game would get excited anticipating the emergence of few unheralded names. ICC’s efforts to promote and publicize youth cricket has definitely bore fruits. The U-19 Cricket World Cup is now the breeding ground for the sport’s future superstars – acclimatizing them to the rigours of international competition.

There has been an increase in popular interest in U-19 cricket with the introduction of LIVE television coverage. The honour of representing one’s country on the big stage brings out the best in these young lads. LIVE TV coverage means that good performances make the players overnight heroes. It also accustoms the players to perform under the limelight even if the matches are played in front of meagre crowds.

Raw talent and energy of the youngsters is on display and it is a treat for the spectators to watch them sharpen their skills. Besides being the launching pad for numerous players who have gone on to represent their senior international teams, the U-19 World Cup also produces good leaders. A testimony of this fact is that 5 of the current international captains have led their sides previously in an U-19 World Cup (Graeme Smith, Alastair Cook, Angelo Mathews, Mushfiqur Rahim and Virat Kohli).

In the Indian context, U-19 has become an important platform for the famed “talent pool” of the country. With the advent of the Indian Premier League, the U-19 players are well aware of the fact that a good showing in the World Cup will help them grab the headlines and with it, a healthy contract with one of the IPL franchises through the quota of “uncapped Indian players”.

India have historically performed well at this tournament, winning it 3 times. At least few players from every edition of the U-19 World Cup have represented the senior Team India. However, it is interesting to note what happens to the majority of the squad members.

As they would tell, the limelight and stardom is fairly momentary. The U-19 World Cup is actually the culmination of a group which is nurtured and trained together specifically for that tournament. Once the World Cup is over, these young boys return home and then starts the real struggle to reach higher levels.

It has been reiterated time and again that the gap between first class cricket and U-19 cricket is huge. All these U-19 players break their sweat in domestic first class cricket and barring few exceptional ones, most spend their entire career in the Ranji Trophy. Sheer talent can fetch rewards at the U-19 level but the raw talent must be polished and ground in the mills of domestic circuit to be able to get “ready” for bigger challenges.

From being on LIVE TV and being followed everywhere, they suddenly find themselves playing a low profile domestic match in some remote part of the country. Therefore it becomes imperative that the U-19 stars are guided well during that crucial phase. Some players, however, already play few Ranji Trophy games before being part of the U-19 World Cup. It is especially important for them to use the U-19 World Cup as a stepping stone and apply the experience earned there to better their performances in first class games.

The selectors should also be wary of fast-tracking players from the U-19 World Cup to the senior team. Rather, they should monitor these players in the domestic circuit for at least 2 seasons and let them prove their mettle there before being considered for the senior team. The junior players must also consider the U-19 World Cup as just an important milestone and not some kind of an end point in order to graduate from boys to men.