Young blood all set to slug it out

A World Cup with 16 teams participating? No. Not in the near future you might say. But the Under-19 World Cup which starts tomorrow in Sri Lanka has the most assorted collection of teams the cricketing world has seen in a long time. The 16 participating teams have been split into four groups - A,B,C and D.

Group A consists of holders England, Zimbabwe, West Indies and America. Group B has runners-up from last year New Zealand, Bangladesh, India and the Netherlands. In Group C, South Africa and Pakistan will slug it out with Kenya and Nepal. Australia, Sri Lanka, Namibia and Ireland bring up complete the list in Group D.

While the globalisation of cricket has meant that teams like Namibia, Nepal, America, Ireland and Kenya get a chance to prove their worth, there is also a core group that will be fighting very hard to establish supremacy. England won the last issue of the Youth World Cup played in South Africa and New Zealand were a close second. Australia and South Africa have good youth programs and successful academies for youngsters. Add to this the three teams from the sub continent - Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India and you know there will be no pushovers.

So the tournament will be a mixture of tough matches and one sided games. After the tournament reaches the Super League stage, all matches will be closely fought.

Given the nature of the tournament, with so many young teams in the running, picking a winner or picking outright losers will be impossible. One thing is sure, the youngsters will be playing for their futures in International cricket. They will give their all. That is where the real struggles will be in this tournament. While the quality of cricket might not be of the highest pedigree at all times, the spirit of participation, and the competitive edge will match anything you can see in international cricket.