Catching them young

The Under-19 World Cup is the ideal platform for talent-spotting and it has thrown up international stars such as Graeme Smith, Chris Gayle, Yuvraj Singh and Chris Cairns in the past. The seventh edition of the tournament will begin in Malaysia on February 17, and this week the List looks at the leading run-scorers and wicket-takers of previous U-19 World Cups who went on to have international careers, and those who didn't make it.

India's Shikhar Dhawan holds the record for the most runs in a single U-19 World Cup. He plundered 505 in seven innings at an average of 84 and a strike-rate of 93 during the 2003-04 tournament in Bangladesh, including scores of 155, 120 and 146. The performance won him the Man-of-the-Series award and Dhawan secured his first-class debut for Delhi in the 2004-05 season. However, he is yet to break into India's national team and has been overtaken by Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa, RP Singh and VRV Singh, who were his U-19 team-mates in 2003-04.

Two of the biggest names to emerge out of the tournaments in 1998 and 2000 were Gayle and Smith. Gayle was not in the original squad but made it after seven players had to return home because they were too old (the West Indies management had misread the qualifications). Gayle grabbed his chance and led the run charts with 364 runs at 72.80. He was then fast-tracked into the West Indies one-day team in September 1999 and made his Test debut six months later.

However, Gayle captained West Indies for the first time only in January 2007 whereas Smith's rise to the top was much quicker. Smith scored 348 runs - the most by any batsman in the 2000 tournament - at an average of 87 and was instrumental in South Africa winning the Plate Championship. He made his Test debut a little over a year later, in the home series against Australia in 2001-02, and was given the captaincy at the age of 22 in April 2003.

Ramnaresh Sarwan's role in the West Indies team is as a middle-order batsman, but at the U-19 World Cup in 1998, Sarwan impressed with his legbreaks. He was the tournament's top wicket-taker, along with Zimbabwe's Mluleki Nkala, taking 16 wickets at 10.81 apiece to add to his 175 runs at an average of 58.33.

Three successful international bowlers emerged from the inaugural U-19 World Cup in 1988. Mushtaq Ahmed , who went on to play 52 Tests and 144 ODIs, was the highest wicket-taker in that tournament with 19 wickets at an average of 16.21. Wayne Holdsworth also took 19 wickets in the 1988 World Cup but never played a Test or ODI for Australia, although he was included in the 1993 Ashes touring party, during which he claimed a hat-trick against Derbyshire. Chris Lewis and Chris Cairns, who later became allrounders for England and New Zealand, were that tournament's second-highest wicket-takers with 16 wickets.

Four batsmen who played that U-19 World Cup in 1988 went on to play more than 100 Tests for their countries. Brian Lara led the West Indies U-19s but managed to score only 222 runs at an average of 27.25, while Inzamam-ul-Haq and Mike Atherton averaged 37 and 24. Sanath Jayasuriya had a poor tournament, scoring 70 runs in six matches with a top score of 53.

Among one-day stars, Abdul Razzaq and Yuvraj Singh had excellent all-round performances in 1998 and 2000 respectively. Razzaq scored 151 runs at an average of 30.20 and took 12 wickets at 17.50 apiece in 1998, while Yuvraj was adjudged the Player of the Tournament in India's victory in 2000 for his 203 runs and 12 wickets.