Under-19 Men's Cricket World Cup
The inaugural event was titled the McDonald's Bicentennial Youth World Cup, and was held in 1988 as part of the Australian Bicentenary celebrations.Future England captains Nasser Hussain and Mike Atherton played, as did Indian spinner Venkatapathy Raju, New Zealand all-rounder Chris Cairns, Pakistanis Mushtaq Ahmed and Inzamam-ul-Haq, Sri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya, and West Indians Brian Lara, Ridley Jacobs, and Jimmy Adams.In addition to the nine Test-playing nations, there were teams from Bangladesh, Kenya, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Namibia and Papua New Guinea.In order to give everyone a decent amount of cricket, the non-qualifiers competed in a Plate League, won by Bangladesh, who beat West Indies in the final.West Indies failed to qualify for the Super League after a fiasco concerning the composition of their squad – they arrived with seven players who contravened the age restrictions for the tournament.The fact that three of the four semi-finalists were from Asia and so more attuned to the conditions was coincidental – they played the better cricket and, in Pakistan's case, had a very experienced squad.England, the defending champions, were most disappointing, and they won only one match against a Test-playing country, and that a last-ball victory over Zimbabwe.The fourth Under-19 World Cup held in New Zealand only confirmed Australia's dominance of the game, and from their opening match, when they obliterated Kenya by 430 runs, through to their comprehensive victory over South Africa in the final, they were never threatened.In contrast, India, the holders, underperformed in their semi-final against South Africa, a team they had easily beaten a week or so earlier.Tatenda Taibu, Zimbabwe's captain, was Man of the Series for his 250 runs and 12 wickets, not to mention his wicket-keeping in between bowling stints.The downside was the quality of the cricket, which was often mediocre on some indifferent pitches, and the reporting of six unidentified bowlers for having suspect actions.The captain Ambati Rayudu had been hailed as the next great batting hope, having scored a century and a double in a first-class match at the age of 17.But he did not score the runs promised and was banned by the referee John Morrison from the semi-final after allowing a funereal over-rate during the Super League win against Sri Lanka: eight overs were bowled in the first 50 minutes.Despite free tickets the matches were sparsely attended even when the home side were in action, but it shouldn't detract from an impressive two weeks which finished with Pakistan securing their second consecutive title in an extraordinary final against India at the Premadasa Stadium.Nasir Jamshed, and Anwar Ali, two of the success stories of the tournament, did the damage and there was no way back for India who fell 38 runs short.A number of players caught the eye, notably Australia captain Moises Henriques, the Indian batsmen Cheteshwar Pujara – the tournament's leading run-scorer – and teammate Rohit Sharma, along with legspinner Piyush Chawla, who a few weeks later made his Test debut against England.India, still smarting from the loss in the previous edition had reason to be upbeat with Tanmay Srivastava, a mature batsman who eventually finished as the tournament's leading run-getter, in their ranks.New Zealand, boosted by Man of the Tournament Tim Southee, were impressive before losing to India in a narrow run-chase under lights and cloudy skies in the other semi-final.South Africa's captain Wayne Parnell had played a major role in ensuring their passage to the summit clash, picking up the most wickets in the tournament en route.As it was, New Zealand did a decent job but crowds were dismal and the group stages were as tediously predictable as in the senior tournament, with the better-funded big nations dominating.The competition came alive in the quarter-finals as West Indies beat England and Sri Lanka defeated South Africa.Along with the ten test playing nations, Afghanistan, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Ireland, Scotland and Namibia also participated in this tournament.[3] Defending champions South Africa were knocked out of the tournament in the group stage, with back-to-back defeats to Bangladesh and Namibia.From thereon, Bangladesh did not take any unnecessary risks and scored the winning run with 23 balls to spare thanks to the innings of captain Akbar Ali and won their first ICC title by three wickets.Yash Dhull walks up to collect the Under 19 World Cup trophy from Sir Richie Richardson to become the fifth Indian captain to win the title after Mohammad Kaif, Virat Kohli, Unmukt Chand and Prithvi Shaw.