Stars who emerged at Under-19 World Cups
The kids are all right
Today Under-19 cricket is a fast track to international and T20 franchise cricket. It wasn't so back when the first U-19 World Cup, the McDonald's Bicentennial Youth World Cup, was played in 1988. From it, with 330 runs and four fifties, including one in the semi-final, emerged Nasser Hussain, the future England captain. Here, Hussain talks to his national captain, Graham Gooch, in 1990.•PA Photos
England won the next junior World Cup, in 1998, but the leading run scorer and wicket-taker were from West Indies: Chris Gayle (364 runs) and Ramnaresh Sarwan (16 at 10.81; and he also scored two half-centuries). In the 181 ODIs Sarwan has played for West Indies, he has taken… 16 wickets.•Getty Images
It must be slightly strange to play in a junior World Cup nearly a year after making your Test debut. Zimbabwe keeper Tatenda Taibu did just that, scoring 250 runs and taking 12 wickets in the 2002 tournament. Two years after that, Taibu became Zimbabwe's first black captain.•Getty Images
Alastair Cook (383 runs and two hundreds) and Tim Bresnan (17 wickets) were England's stars in the 2004 World Cup, but their contributions weren't enough for England to beat West Indies in the semi-final.•AFP
Bangladesh won the Plate final, beating Australia by eight runs. Nine of those 11 players went on to play senior international cricket, though the star of the tournament was left-arm spinner Enamul Haque Jr, already a Test player, who took 5 for 31 in the final, and was the tournament's leading wicket-taker. •AFP
The biggest star to emerge from the 2008 edition, in Malaysia, was Virat Kohli - then a loud, brash teen perceived to have an attitude problem. Kohli captained India to the title and scored 235 runs on the way. Among his young team-mates was one Ravindra Jadeja, who took ten wickets with his left-arm spin.•AFP
Mushtaq Ahmed and Inzamam-ul Haq also played in the tournament, in Australia. Mushtaq was the joint leading wicket-taker, with 19, including 2 for 59 in the final. Inzamam aggregated 223 runs. Both went on to have illustrious careers with Pakistan - Inzamam retiring with more than 8000 Test runs, and Mushtaq with 185 Test wickets.•AFP
India's Mohammad Kaif scored consistently in the 1998 tournament, and went on to play the next one, in 2000 in Sri Lanka. Along with Yuvraj Singh, Kaif was instrumental in India winning the title, both chipping in with useful runs in the semi-final. Four years later, the two combined in another famous one-day victory - the NatWest final against England at Lord's.•Emmanuel Dunand/AFP
Taibu's team-mates Charles Coventry, who went on to equal Saeed Anwar's then-record one-day score of 194, and Brendan Taylor also did well in the 2002 World Cup, and the three helped Zimbabwe to a thumping win over Nepal in the Plate final.•AFP
Denesh Ramdin, West Indies' keeper and captain, top-scored in the match against England, with 72. He also top-scored for his side with 36 in the final but it wasn't enough to overcome Pakistan - though they were surprisingly low on future stars.•AFP
Seventeen-year-old Eoin Morgan, who was among the top ten run scorers of the 2004 World Cup, fared even better in the 2006 edition, where he was No. 2 with 338 runs. He hit a 126-ball 124 in the quarter-final against New Zealand - against an attack including Tim Southee and Hamish Bennett - but ended up on the losing side.•PA Photos
Darren Bravo (in picture), Kieran Powell, Wayne Parnell, Corey Anderson, Trent Boult, Ahmed Shehzad and Steven Finn also featured in the tournament.•Getty Images
Two other future heavyweights who made their mark in the 2000 tournament were Graeme Smith and Shane Watson. Smith was the leading run scorer, with 348 runs from six matches. Watson made 266, belting a 104-ball 100 against Namibia.
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Hashim Amla, South Africa's captain in the tournament, scored a run-a-ball 62 in their semi-final win over India, but he was still some distance from the record-breaking heights he would reach for the senior one-day side. Australia's George Bailey, Cameron White and Shaun Marsh were among the top ten run scorers.•Getty Images
Pakistan had even managed to beat an India side full of promising talent - Shikhar Dhawan (in picture; the top run scorer with 505 runs), Dinesh Karthik, RP Singh and Robin Uthappa - in the semi-final by five wickets.•AFP
With 349 runs at an average of 116.33, Cheteshwar Pujara, the man who went on to replace Rahul Dravid as India's Test No. 3, was the 2006 tournament's highest run scorer. Pujara scored an unbeaten century in the semi-final but made a duck in the final. Pakistan retained the title, beating India by 38 runs.•AFP
Quinton de Kock was the shining star of the 2012 tournament, scoring two fifties and a hundred from six matches, showing the sort of consistency he went on to display for the senior one-day side against India in 2013.•ICC/Getty