Top Dour innings in Test Cricket

Test cricket is undisputedly and definitely the ultimate. One not only has to play well but play well for five days.

It is easier to play well when one’s team is doing well. However, it would be extremely difficult to summon unknown reserves of energy and resolve to play well and eke out a fighting draw when all seems lost.

Test cricket has given us several such instances where dour performances have resulted in fighting draws from positions of near defeat.

Faf du Plessis and AB De Villiers
Interestingly Faf was seen as a T20 Specialist. Injury to JP Duminy saw him make his debut. A debut in Australia against the tough Aussies is probably the ultimate challenge for a batsman.

Faf rose to the challenge. In the first innings he scored 78. However in the second it was an unreal effort.

South Africa were 77/4 and with Jacques Kallis injured it seemed only a matter of time before Australia wrapped up proceedings on the fifth day.

However tremendous application was seen from Faf who batted for over a day to score 110 runs in 466 balls. AB de Villers too played a memorable part with just 33 of 246 balls which helped SA save the Test in an extraordinary display of character.

Faf said later that before Adelaide he didn’t believe that he could bat for four sessions. Now, he has to believe.

Mike Atherton
He batted for 643 minutes and faced 492 balls to score 185 not out against a fiery South African attack led by Allan Donald.

This was one of the best Test innings played by any Captain. England saved the Test by scoring 351/5 in 165 overs. At the end of the fourth day England were already four wickets down and it seemed Donald, Shaun Pollock, Brian Macmillan and Meyrick Pringle would skittle them out.

Atherton had other ideas and with Robin Smith and Jack Russell played a masterclass act to take England to a famous battling draw.

Gautam Gambhir
If Faf batted for four sessions and Atherton for five, then Gambhir batted for seven. His stellar opening partner Virendra Sehwag was out at the end of third day. It was after India had been asked to follow on at Napier, New Zealand.

Gambhir says that he spoke to a friend at the end of the third day’s play and had said that he will bat for the next two days to save the Test. He did so, scoring 137 runs in 436 balls and batting for 643 minutes.

Gambhir recalls that during one tough period of play he had scored one run in one hour. He then told his batting partner Sachin that he was worried that runs drying up will not help the situation.

Sachin told him that here the team is benefiting and this could be his best innings for India. Gambler says that this helped him recover his concentration as otherwise he was trying to break the shackles which might have resulted in his losing his wicket. India batted for over 180 overs to score 476/4 and draw the Test.

Hanif Mohammed
Faf batted for four sessions, Atherton for five and Gambler for seven. However Hanif Mohammed outdid them all by batting for 970 minutes, which is over eight sessions to score an epic 337 on a deteriorating pitch.

The Test venue was Barbados which has seen many great batsmen failing to do well. In this Test, Conrad Hunte played a super knock of 142 on debut and Everton Weekes hit 197 with Collie Smith and Sobers chipping in with 50s to take a strong West Indies team to 579.

Pakistan then was shot out for 106 in the first knock with Roy Gilchrist taking four wickets. They had to survive three and half days to save the Test, which was a six day Test.

They did survive, helped by this epic knock which even today is the longest ever innings in the history of Test cricket. At the end of the fourth day Hanif was unbeaten on 61 with Pakistan 162/1.

He got a bedside note from his skipper Abdul Hafeez Kardar saying “You are our only hope”. The next day Hanif batted the entire day to score exactly 100 runs to remain unbeaten at 161.

At night he got another bedside note “You can do it”. Hanif finished the fifth day at 270 not out and Pakistan at 525/3.

The third note was “If you can bat until tea tomorrow, the match will be saved.Hanif was on 297 not out at lunch on the sixth day.

At tea time he was still there at 330 not out, keeping his skipper’s wish. After scoring 337 he was out. The match was saved. It was one of the greatest innings in the history of cricket.

I normally check my e-mail on Sundays. Sorry, Let me amend this sentence.  I normally check my e-mail on Sundays to mostly delete lots of e-mails without even reading them.  In my guestimate maybe i delete more than 90% of my e-mails.

This led me to think “”Is the e-mail dead or dying.?””

The Origin of E-Mail. Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith started Hotmail in 1996. Soon after, Yahoo Mail started in 1997. Later gmail became popular. E-mail quickly took over as a fast, easy and convenient method of communication. I am one of the early users of e-mail. Proof of that being that i do not need to use a . ( dot) or an _ ( underscore) or an year such as 2000 or 2016 etc with my name in my e-mail ID.

Increase in importance. E-mail quickly became an important part of day to day life and was extensively used for communication. Slowly, it’s importance increased more and more and it started replacing inland letters and postcards.

Why – Primarily because of faster and surer communication. It was also non-intrusive and extremely convenient. An e-mail will come and remain in your in-box and it is up to you to choose when to read it or not to read it.

Innovation . E-mail started being used in more and more innovative ways. Instead of writing a letter to a friend or relative in USA and it taking ages to reach, an e-mail can be sent which will be instantly delivered, read and replied back. Say, a birthday wish, or congratulations for a promotion, or best wishes for engagement or wedding. Earlier Cards used to be sent. But one is never sure if it is delivered or not. Hence e-mail cards and wishes were sent. Delivery guaranteed.

Increase in Business use. Thereafter from personal use came an important development and evolution in e-mail use. Business use increased.  E-mail started being used for commercial communications. Business proposals were sent on e-mail as attachments. Reports to bosses were sent. Companies started doing e-mail marketing more aggressively. Businesses started tracking their customers and kept them informed. Marketing concepts like customer retention, new product development and more.

E-Mail helped all these tremendously.

New Social Media Innovations Linkedin Started in 2003. 13 years later, LinkedIn has 2 new customers/members every second. It has over 128 million members in USA and the country with second largest members is India ( 35 Million), where it is fast growing. Worldwide it has 450 million members.

Facebook which Started in 2004 presently has over 1.7 Billion active users. It has started the concept of Business pages  and presently has over a million advertisers. USA has over 185 million FB members while the only other country with over 100 million members is India.

Twitter, an online social networking service which enables users to send short messages upto 140 characters, called tweets started in 2006. It currently has more than 500 milion users out of which 300 million are active users.

Whatsapp started in 2009. It too has taken the world by storm. The potential of whatsapp can be recognised with the staggering stats that FB acquired Whatsapp for 19 Billion $ even though the revenue generated by whatsapp was 10.2 Million $.

Why am i writing all this. Simply because these 4 are popular social media tools which in my opinion are posing an increasing threat to e-mail. Earlier we used to keep in touch with e-mail. Now we keep in touch through whatsapp and FB. In fact like inland letters and postcards were considered slow earlier, now sometimes e-mail is considered slow, when its more easy and faster to get in touch over whatsapp or FB.

There are other advantages too of social media. Say you want to organise an event. Organising it is easier and more efficient by forming a group in FB or whatsapp than by e-mailing repeatedly. In fact, let me share my own experience in this. 15 years back in our training batch of almost 200 officers we formed a yahoo e-group. 5 years back, we organised a batch get-together in which almost 60 officers participated and the primary method of communication was e-mail and of course SMS. Now, this year once again we organised a get-together and this time it was organised much more efficiently through whatsapp. In fact most of the officers said that they have not visited the yahoo e-group since ages. Some have even forgotten their passwords as they have shifted to g-mail. None of us could remember who the admin of the yahoo e-group was.

So Is the e-mail dead. I would still say NO. Yes, it needs improvements. Interestingly, the biggest threat to e-mail is e-mail. I read somewhere that in USA and India its legal to send e-mail till a customer opts out of it. Whereas in Europe a customer has to be asked whether he can be added to mailing list. If so maybe the European Model can be adopted.

To conclude, i would state that the business use of e-mail will always remain. In fact organisations now are having specific official e-mail ID’s where official mails are compulsorily required to be sent.  ( on a lighter vein, Hilary Clinton i am sure now knows a lot about this ) The personal use of e-mail, though decreased will also remain. Response to a tweet, or a blog post, people will/may still prefer to be informed through e-mail. The growing use of e-mail on cell phone is ensuring its relevance too, as even deleting messages takes seconds. E-mail is also relevant and important as many personal messages are not suited to the public exposure of a social network. It offers privacy and space. It offers option to write peacefully and in detail, outlining the thoughts and reasons behind the message. Therefore, it will remain alive and healthy, but in a modified Way.

Jeffery Archer has become a Hindi Formula Movie

My definition of favourite writer is someone whose books i can read again and again. PG Wodehouse and John Grisham are in this category. So WAS Jeffery Archer who has written three of my all time favourite books, Kane and Abel, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less and First Among Equals.

Archer’s life itself is like a fascinating thriller movie. As a fund-raiser for Oxfam he had the support of Beatles.  As a student he was an Oxford Blue in athletics, President of University athletics Club and represented England as a 100 metre sprinter. He was a fundraiser for UN, an auctioneer, a politician a writer, playwright and an art gallery owner.

Controversies. As a student fundraiser, Archer had houses and cars with personalised number plates, which raised eyebrows. He was accused of discrepancies in fund raising for UN. He was involved in a fraudulent investment scheme which left him nearly bankrupt. He was accused of shop-lifting 3 suits from a departmental store. As a writer, he has been accused of plagiarism, and as an investor accused of insider trading. 

Political Career Archer became a Member of Parliament at 29. Due to financial mis-propriety and controversies his career took a back seat until Margaret Thatcher revived it in the 1980’s and made him Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party. In 1991 he organised a rock concert with Rod Stewart, Paul Simon, Sting and Gloria Estefan for the Kurdish refugees, raising millions. For this charitable activity, his friend Prime Minister Major made him a life Peer in 1992. Archer had a last chance to revive his political career in 2000 by becoming Mayor of London, but as he was accused of perjury and jailed he had to withdraw his candidature. The Conservative Party leader declared that this was the end of Archer, the politician.

Writing Career  Interestingly, Archer’s First book Not a Penny More, not a Penny Less was written by him as a means to avoid bankruptcy. He followed this with many more and also some extremely popular short stories as well.  His books were bestsellers though he never got much critical acclaim.

Archer’s books were unique, extremely realistic and varied as well. One could learn a lot about various things. There is humour, skilful writing and the incredible ability of keeping the storyline intact amidst different characters, all of whom played their own glorious parts. His earlier books were all superb masterpieces in their own right.

I have said above that Jeffery Archer WAS in my list of favourite authors, but sadly not now. Why ? I just finished Book 6 of the 7 part “Clifton Chronicles”. Yes I bought the book, in fact I bought all 6 and will buy the 7th too. However nowadays I feel Archer is writing the same book numerous times with different names. Just like in a formula Hindi movie there are some extremely repetitive, predictive and clichéd occurrences happening, so also an Archer Book can nowadays be exactly predicted even before it is written.

Every New Archer book nowadays has the following. There will be;

1. Increase in the number of central characters.
2. The characters will cover at least 3 generations. ( Is this to ensure a series and not a single book. Now, that would be sad )
3. One character will be from a very poor background. He will then rise to riches due to hard work, street smartness, luck and brilliance
4. There will be a romantic angle between the impoverished hero and a rich lady character.
5. There will be opposition from one parent of the rich lady character
6. The impoverished hero will become richer and more famous than his 
7. rich wife
8. There will be another rich character with one or two failed marriages, including at least one where he has married for beauty/looks and the opposite character has married him/her for money and money alone
9. There will be a large business enterprise, preferably an old and established bank
10. There will be an instance or two of insider trading. 
11. There must be at least 2 Villainous characters, one of which has to be an ex spouse or ex girlfriend/boyfriend and the other has an ex military background preferably with some knowledge of banking Stock market
12. There will be at least one successful takeover of the bank by someone with the blessings of the villainous character. There will also be a failed takeover attempt
13. The villainous Military character will preferably be a war hero, and have received a medal which he did not deserve.
14. One of the children will leave the residence due to some disagreement or simply because he/she wants to be successful on own merit. Usually he/she will be and get a hero’s welcome back
15. There will be a dramatic vote too close to call. There will be a surprise vote too in this both for and against.
16. There will be an accident or a suicide, or sometimes a murder which is camouflaged as suicide. The suicide will preferably be with a sensational letter
17. There will be a rich old gentleman who will firmly stand by the Hero’s side
18. There will be a loyal and sincere secretary who takes notes seriously and the notes come to of some unforeseen use
19. Finally, there will be a crucial race against time to reach an important event or meet a crucial deadline.
Due to above repetitive points I feel that for the last few years I am reading the same book again and again. Do you feel the same?
I sincerely want that the 7th book of Clifton Chronicles is out as promised by December 2016 so that there is closure for me. Thereafter I want the Master to write one, just one more masterful book which is unique. Till then I will continue to read again and again Kane and Abel, PG Wodehouses and John Grishams. The more I read them the more I find new things/points in them, unlike the current Archer novels.

My “Almost There” Indian Test 11

Do we ever think of those cricketers who missed out on selection because of stalwarts ? Or those who did not get enough chances to make their mark as Test players?

I tried to select what I call “My almost there Indian Test 11”. Selection criteria is players I have seen, who have not played Test cricket or have played less than 25 Test matches. Hence legends like Padmakar Shivalkar and Rajinder Goel are not in this list.

Openers

Shiv Sundar Das and Aakash Chopra are both classical openers. Das who played only 23 Tests is the very definition of what Sunny Gavaskar has said about Test Cricket – “Give the 1st hour to bowlers, next 5 hours is yours”. Greg Chappell was on record that Das was the fittest Indian cricketer. He held his own against an Australian attack led by Mcgrath and a South African attack led by Pollock. After only one average series versus West Indies he was dropped from the playing 11. In England however he did not play a single Test and thereafter did not get a chance. Sadly, his last knock for team India was 253 versus Essex, perhaps the last to hit a Double hundred in England.

Aakash Chopra was the perfect foil to dasher Virendra Sehwag. He played only Ten Tests and was unlucky not to continue for long, A failed experiment to have Yuvraj as opener followed by successful discovery of long term player Gautam Gambhir saw Aakash out of the squad. He has since discovered his calling in the world of media.

Middle order bats: Amol Mazumdar, Yere Goud, Praveen Amre and Mohd Kaif ( Captain)

Amol was the schoolboy with pads on when Sachin and Kambli scripted a 664 run record partnership. He started his Ranji career with a glorious 260 and went on to score more than 11000 First class runs @48 with 30 tons but was definitely unlucky to play for India not even once. Just his bad luck that Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly chose the same time to play for India

Yere Goud was called the Rahul Dravid of Railways team by Javagal Srinath. He had more than 7500 Ranji Trophy runs @45 with 16 tons but was unlucky not to play for India.

Amre made his Test debut for India at 24 and scored a century on debut in hostile Durban. Yet, only 1 year later, he played the last of his 11 Tests for India. What a huge loss that this talented cricketer could not play more Tests.

Mohd Kaif is one of the 3 Successful U-19 World Cup winning Indian Captains. He will always be remembered for his 75 ball 87 which helped India chase down 326 in 2002 Natwest Final. Kaif played only 13 Tests for India and promised much but could not continue. He had a match-saving 91 vs England and a 148 not out vs West Indies at St Lucia. Interesting aside is that in the press conference which followed Kaif’s 148, MS Dhoni sat with the reporters and had asked him how he will celebrate his ton. Kaif  replied that he will do so only if India wins the Test Match.  Sad that this team man could not play long for India

Wicket keeper. Sadanand Vishwanath starred in the 1985 World Championship of cricket. He was mesmerising and Aussie media prophesized that he will be India’s best ever. He unfortunately faded away after only 3 Tests and was replaced by Kiran More and Chandrakant Pandit.

Pace bowlers Munaf Patel, Vivek Razdan and Subrato Bannerjee .

Munaf who played just 13 Tests had both pace and control. He played a crucial role in 2011 World Cup, but could not play more Tests. Razdan too played just 2 Tests and in his second took 5-79 vs Pakistan in Pakistan. How strange that he took 5 wickets in his last Test innings and was dropped thereafter.  Subroto Bannerjee played just One Test match and bowled in 1 innings taking 3 wicket, that too those of Mark Waugh, Mark Taylor and Geoff Marsh. He never played for India again. How unlucky can that be?

Spinner  Laxman Sivaramakrishna is in by edging out Narendra Hirwani. Siva’s most famous moment in cricketing history is getting Javed Miandad out stumped by Vishwanath in the 1985World Championship of Cricket tournament. He played Test cricket at 17, but could play only 9 Tests. I feel he could have been a mega star but it was not to be.

Do you agree with my “Almost 11” What’s yours ?

How diet fuels Novak Djokovic’s insatiable appetite for victory

Novak Djokovic is frighteningly dominating men’s tennis. In 2015 he won three Grand Slam titles (Majors), six Masters and his fifth world tour final, becoming the first to win the end of the year tournament four consecutive times.

He then started 2016 by winning the Australian Open for the sixth time.

Djokovic now has 11 Majors, six short of Roger Federer’s 17. He also has won 26 Masters, which is just one short of Rafa Nadal’s 27.

Considering his main rivals are an ageing Federer, Rafa and Andy Murray – all three of whom he is dominating at present – Djokovic looks set to substantially increase his tally.

His success is down to determination, Recognition of what is required, a target set for one’s self, and dedication to stick to it.

Let us go through the journey.

Life changed for Novak in 2010 after a nutritionist, Dr Igor Cetojevic, saw one of Djokovic’s regular mid-match collapses while surfing TV. Dr Igor conducted experimental tests and found Djokovic was allergic to gluten, strongly intolerant to wheat and dairy products, and mildly sensitive to tomatoes. Bread and cheese were forthwith banned. Dr Igor gave him a gluten-free diet for two weeks, and Djokovic felt lighter. Then, as an experiment, Igor gave him a bagel and, lo and behold the Serb felt sluggish and lethargic, confirming the gluten allergy.

The champ permanently switched to a gluten-free diet and he was world No.1 within 12 months. He has stuck to the diet ever since with monk-like perseverance.

The diet itself is based on vegetables, nuts, beans, chickpeas, seeds, lentils, healthyOILS and lean meats. Djokovic cooks almost every meal himself. As a pro tennis player, he can’t avoid staying in hotels, so he lays down a condition for hotels that he will stay with them only if they will allow him to use their kitchen. He never uses his phone or computer while eating. He never watches television while eating his food, slowly and meticulously. Before eating he says a short prayer reminding himself of sticking to his diet. The results sure are reflecting in his performances.

(These diet details were revealed by the champion himself in his book, Serve to win).

A glaring omission in Djokovic’s glittering trophy cabinet is the French Open. Only seven champions have won all four Grand Slam titles: Fred Perry, Don Budge (all Majors in a year), Rod Laver (all Majors in a year twice), Andre Agassi, Roy Emerson, Roger Federer and Rafa.

Its not that Djokovic has done badly at the French Open, but six times – including twice in finals – he came up against the best clay court player of all time, nine-time winner Rafa. Djokovic’s best chances were probably 2011 and 2015. In 2011 he had defeated Rafa four times in a row and also had a 41-match winning streak before being defeated by Fed in the semi-finals. In 2015 too he must have indeed fancied his chances after defeating Rafa in the quarter-final, however Stan Wawrinka came up with a super display.

Pertinently, Federer is 34 and has lost his last seven Grand Slam matches against Djokovic. Similarly, Rafa had a 22-15 career lead against him but Djokovic has won nine of his last ten to go ahead at 24-23. He seems to have the measure of his two great rivals.

Other competitors are the unpredictable Murray and Wawrinka. While both have the game to win against Djokovic, his sheer consistency makes him clear favourites versus both of them. Djokovic may end up winning several more Grand Slams in the next few years unless some young stars come up.

Can he come close to Federer’s 17? Time will tell. Already he has given a veiled statement that Federer’s 17 can be challenged. I am sure he must be planning an assault on it.

( This blog post has been published in Roar sports community of Australia)

The romance of a fourth innings knock in Test cricket

Ian Chappell said, “I haven’t seen better batting in the fourth innings than Virat Kohli’s enterprising century at Adelaide Oval, where he narrowly missed guiding India to an incredible victory in 2014.”

Batting in the fourth innings is special.

Why should it be so? After all, batting first in a Test match should be tough too. The bowlers are rested and can make best use of early morning freshness of the wicket, when it has more juice.

WG Grace famously said, “When you win the toss, bat. If you are in doubt, think about it, then bat. If you have very big doubts, consult a colleague, then bat.”

Sunil Gavaskar said, “Bat first, give one hour to the bowlers, next five hours are yours.”

Therefore after the initial storm has been weathered, one can enjoy batting as the wicket will help the batsman. This suggests that batting first has advantages. Statistically too if we see the batting averages of almost all great batsmen, their batting averages in the first innings is distinctly higher than their batting averages in the fourth innings of a Test match.

What about batting in a Test’s second and third innings? Conventionally speaking, the wicket on the morning of the first day of a Test match offers some assistance to the quick bowlers and then eases out. On the second and third day of the Test match, the wicket is at its best, and then on the fourth day it starts assisting the spinners. Finally, on the fifth day, batting becomes difficult. Therefore, classically speaking, batting is easier in the second and third innings of a Test match than in the first.

What is different about the fourth innings of a Test match? A wearing pitch, turn, unpredictable bounce, target to chase, past history, demons in mind and so on. Due to a combination of these factors, we see fewer scores in the fourth innings than in others.

In the history of Test cricket, only 27 batsmen have scored more than 1000 runs in the fourth innings, with only six having an Average above 50. These are Graeme Smith (53.7), Ricky Ponting (50.4), Gavaskar (58.5), Gordon Greenidge (53.2), Younis Khan (60.2) and Geoff Boycott (58.7).

Two of the greatest batsmen of all time, Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara, do not have great fourth innings records at all. Sachin has statistically the maximum Test runs at 1625, but an average of only 36.93. Lara has 1404 Test runs at 35.1.

As far as Test tons scored in fourth innings, Younis Khan has five, while Smith, Gavaskar, Ponting and Ramnaresh Sarwan have four each. Sachin has three, of which his 136 versus Pakistan was probably one of the best ever knocks in a losing cause.

Sir Don Bradman, owner of the enviable Test average of 99.94 that will probably stand the test of time, scored 734 runs in fourth innings with three 100s at 73.40. While 73.4 is awesome, it’s notably less than 99.94, proving that fourth innings batting is the toughest.

Has batting has become easier in the recent past, with pitches remaining true? In the history of Test cricket, there have been 49 scores of 350 or more in the fourth innings, 21 coming in the last 10 years. Nine out of 49 resulted in wins, of which four were in the last ten years. We are also often seeing fourth-day finishes, so has the value of a fourth innings knock slightly decreased? I leave these thoughts for you to reflect on.

( This blog post has been published by The Roar sports community of Australia)

The transition from Under-19 to senior cricket

India and West Indies will contest the final of the Under-19 World Cup on February 14, which sparked a thought about how difficult the transition from youth to senior cricket is for aspiring professionals.

Can we choose a current 16-member Indian team for both Test matches and one-day internationals exclusively from players who have played Under-19 cricket since 2000?

Selection is quite easy.

The opening slots are occupied by Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma and Robin Uthappa. For the middle order batsmen we have Virat Kohli, Mohd Kaif, Yuvraj Singh, Cheteshwar Pujara and Suresh Raina. Ambati Rayudu and Venugopal Rao miss out.The two wicketkeepers are Dinesh Karthik and Ajay Ratra, with Sanju Samson missing out. For spinners we have Ravindra Jadeja and Piyush Chawla while for pace bowlers we have RP Singh, VRV Singh and Jaydev Unadkat.

This team of 16 seems like a strong side indeed and shows that Under-19 cricket in India does go on to produce cricketers capable of graduating to the highest level.

My interest in the Under-19 Indian team stems from my school days when close friend Ranjib Biswal went to Australia for the Youth World Cup in 1988. Members of the team who went on to play for India were Praveen Amre, Subroto Banerjee, Narendra Hirwani, Nayan Mongia and Venkatapathy Raju.

Ranjib, too, I am sure would have played for India for a few years before Harbhajan Singh burst into the scene. However, he quit the game at 25 after becoming Lok Sabha MP. Currently a Rajya Sabha MP, Ranjib played first-class cricket for ten years from age of 15 to 25 and had the unique record of being a sitting Lok Sabha MP who was captain of a Ranji and Duleep Trophy team. Later of course he became national selector and manager of the senior team for a glorious period of 18 months when India became Test number one team as well as ODI world champions.

Coming back to Under-19 cricket, in those days the media was not so active and cricket was not the multi-crore industry it has become. If one sees the last decade, we can note increasing focus on the junior team and many of the players have gone on to play for India.

A brief look at the history of Under-19 cricket will throw up interesting points.

The 1988 Youth World Cup incidentally was an Under-18 tournament. Then there was a gap of ten years before ICC restarted the comp and made it an Under-19 World Cup.

The 1988 tournament had some youngsters who went on to become the biggest stars in world cricket. I have named the Indian stars above, but from other countries there were Brian Lara, Jimmy Adams, Ridley Jacobs, Inzamam Ul Haq, Mike Atherton, Sanath Jayasuriya, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Stuart Law, Chris Cairns, Nasser Hussain and Mark Ramprakash.

So wasn’t it a shame that the tournament was discontinued for ten years? What a blunder.

After the ICC restarted the Under-19 World Cup, Australia and India have been the most successful teams with three titles each, while Pakistan have won twice, and England and South Africa have won once each. In 1998, when the tournament restarted, England won the title, but the shining star of the event was Chris Gayle.

In 2000, India won under the captaincy of Mohd Kaif, and the man of the series was none other than Yuvraj Singh. Subsequent Under-19 World Cups also led to the emergence of major talents of world cricket such as Cameron White, Tim Southee and Tatenda Taibu and Virat Kohli.

Is success guaranteed once someone plays Under-19 level for his country and the World Cup? No, it is only the beginning. It is a tough transition and is not easy to move on from Under-19 cricket to the national team.

The pressure, stress and strain are enormous.

The most horrifying story involves Jamie Grove of England, who was a member of the victorious Under-19 World Cup winning team of 1998. Yet after he went for 20 runs in a T20 final in 2003 he was given death threats, people used to call him up saying they would rape his wife.Yet his club refused to allow him to go to the police, finally putting a line in the club website that they stood by him. Grove was disappointed saying, “that is not the support I was looking for”.

Other stories are not as horrifying and are usually more about missed opportunities. There are many instances of players who were supposed to make it very big in world cricket but just could not do so, such as Owais Shah who has played only four Tests.Then there is Unmukt Chand, who has played none. We can also include Ambati Rayudu and Reetinder Singh Sodhi as Under-19 players who promised so much but could not make the next level.

Coming back to the present tournament, a big letdown was that Australia did not participate due to security concerns. That could not be helped. India’s route to final has been Ireland, New Zealand, Nepal, followed by a quarter-final versus Namibia and semi-final versus Sri Lanka. While one may devalue Namibia and Sri Lanka as opponents, but it would be folly as they reached the semi-finals by knocking out defending champions South Africa and former champions England, respectively.

The Indian youngsters to watch out for are Rishabh Pant, Sarfraz Khan, Armaan Zaffer, Avesh Khan and MK Lomror. I am sure some of them will go on to play for the senior team in the future.

One last issue to be discussed here is whether Under-19 players should be allowed to play in IPL. 2015 started the trend with Sarfraz Ahmed being “bought” for 50 lakhs by RCB, and then this year he was retained.From one player in 2015 from the current Under-19 team, as many as six were selected for IPL teams in 2016, three for their base price for 10 lakhs, captain Ishan for 35 lakhs and opener Rishabh Pant for an astronomical Rs 1.9 crore.The sixth of course is Sarfraz. 

Dilip Vengsarkar, India’s respected former captain and chairman of selectors has said that Under-19 players should not be allowed to play in IPL and this is a major reason for rampant practice of age fraud going on.

Under-19 coach Rahul Dravid has also indirectly said that the players should concentrate on cricket only. Whatever decision is taken by BCCI, they should ensure that the route to the senior Indian team should be Under-19 and first-class cricket rather than Under-19 and IPL.

Since so many stars have come up successfully through the first-class route, this should definitely not be tampered with, and if it is being done so, it should be stopped.

I hope BCCI thinks deep on this issue and comes up with a practical, acceptable solution for all stakeholders.

in my view, the youngsters should complete their Under-19 training and then become eligible for IPL. Firstly, because T20 may affect their skills sets. Secondly, they may be rushed into international cricket without adequate first-class experience. And thirdly, they may not be able to handle too muchMONEY at early age.

Coming back to 2016 U-19 Worlsd Cup Final, India played West Indies. India were competing for their fourth cup while the West Indies will be looking for their first. A brilliant bowling performance saw West Indies retricting India to 145 and then chasing it with 5 wickets,. Congrats to the Champions. Well Played team India as well
( also published in my wordpress blog thesportsmanwritesaway.wordpress.com )