History of ICC U19 Cricket World Cup

#2 1998

Chris Gayle was the leading scorer of the tournament

Hosts: South AfricaWinners: England

The next edition was held after a gap of 10 years with the ICC deciding to make it a biennial tournament. Hosts South Africa joined eight other Test-playing nations and seven qualifiers –Bangladesh, Denmark, Ireland, Kenya, Namibia, Papua New Guinea and Scotland – in a 16-nation event.

With an enlarged field, the format was also revised with teams divided into four groups named after former greats Don Bradman, Colin Cowdrey, Sunil Gavaskar and Garfield Sobers. The top two teams from each group qualified for the Super League, while the bottom two contested a separate Plate championships.

England defeated New Zealand by seven wickets in the Super League final while Bangladesh indicated they were ready for Test status by beating the West Indies by six wickets in the Plate final.

Star cricketers to emerge from the tournament included Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh of India, Shoaib Malik and Abdul Razzaq of Pakistan, England’s Graeme Swann, Kyle Mills of New Zealand, Imran Tahir of South Africa (who played for Pakistan), Sri Lanka’s Dilhara Fernando, and Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Darren Ganga from the West Indies.

Tim Anderson, the ICC’s Head of Global Development, captained Australia.

Gayle was the tournament’s leading scorer with 364 runs, while team-mate Ramnaresh Sarwan and Zimbabwe’s Mluleki Nkala were the top bowlers with 16 wickets each.