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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.
The final is against West Indies.
India will compete for their fourth cup while the West Indies will be looking for their first. 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.
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 much money at early age.
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