Summary
The boys in blue won the ICC U-19 Men’s Cricket World Cup on February 5
From mentors to facilities, here are reasons that have made India’s cricket teens the best in the world
Any World Cup victory is a momentous occasion, an outcome to be cherished for generations. But when triumph becomes the norm, even the tag of world champions begins to feel like an inevitability.
This is precisely what has happened with the Indian team at the ICC U-19 Men’s Cricket World Cup, a competition that the boys in blue have won a record five times, the latest arriving on February 5 after a resolute performance against England at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Antigua.
India has now played in all of the past four U-19 World Cup finals, winning two (this year and in 2018). Their first title came back in 2000 under Mohammad Kaif, before Virat Kohli and the team broke an eight-year jinx to clinch the second trophy in 2008.
Even though Indian cricket has been at the forefront of the men’s game throughout this century, the dominance at the U-19 level is unique, unmatched by any other country at any level in any era.
What makes India’s teenagers so special? Here is an attempt to understand, with 10 reasons why Indian teams thrive like no other at the U-19 World Cup.
The power of precedent
In 2000, Kaif’s youngsters went to Sri Lanka and sealed India’s maiden U-19 World Cup by beating the hosts in the final. A flamboyant southpaw, Yuvraj Singh was named the player of the series. Seeing Kaif and Yuvraj transition from U-19 glory into mainstays of the senior team for India served as the perfect example of how the U-19 World Cup is a gateway to cricketing excellence. Thereafter, the power of precedent has only got stronger with each successive Indian victory, something which is underscored by India’s most recent winning captain Yash Dhull’s repeated acknowledgments of the legacy he has inherited.
The incentives of the Indian Premier League (IPL)
It comes as a little surprise that India’s golden phase at the U-19 World Cup has coincided with the rise and rise of the IPL. After Kohli’s team became champions in 2008, a whole host of players from the victorious unit found themselves with IPL contracts. While some, like Kohli, went on to become household names for India, others like Saurabh Tiwary, Siddharth Kaul, Pradeep Sangwan and Iqbal Abdulla found an alternative to a stable cricketing career through the IPL. The fact that the world’s best franchise cricket competition embraces, nurtures and unleashes young talent acts as a safety net for U-19 players, who have an extra incentive to put their best foot forward thanks to the IPL.
Peaking early
Compared to Australia, England, New Zealand, or South Africa, Indian youth plays cricket longer and earlier than their international counterparts, who may go through a series of sports before opting for cricket. A classic example is South African batting maestro AB de Villiers. This allows muscle memory and cricketing instincts to develop faster among Indians, allowing them to peak early relative to most of the rest of the world.
The support of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)
Ever since the first presidential tenure of Jagmohan Dalmiya in 2001, the BCCI has done a commendable job with identifying young players from the remotest parts of the country and offering them state-of-the-art facilities through centres like the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. Being the richest cricketing board in the world has helped, but in situations that require sensitive and sensible management, the BCCI has also stepped up to the plate. It is evident in how the board handled the COVID-19 outbreak within the Indian team during the 2022 World Cup.
A problem of plenty
India’s sheer size and demography, combined with cricket’s status as the most popular sport in the country, means there will never be any shortage of cricketing talent in India. Football may take precedence in England or rugby might become the sport of choice for most young athletes in Australia, but when it comes to India, cricket’s reach and uptake is uncontestable. This creates immense bench strength for cricketing squads at any age level for India, giving selectors a problem of plenty.
Struggles before success
A large chunk of the players who wear the Indian jersey at the U-19 level come from the lower economic strata of Indian society. With access to cricket expanding beyond the metropolises, rural or small-town India has become the fountainhead of India’s top talents in recent decades. This is best exemplified through Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Look closely at India’s U-19 heroes and so many of them have experienced brutal struggles before meeting with international success. A case in point is the story of Yashasvi Jaiswal, player of the tournament in India’s run to the final in 2020. From selling panipuris for a living to sleeping in a tent with groundsmen, Jaiswal’s exposure to the seamier side of life hardened him with a resilience that made adversities on the field seem far simpler.
A cohesive structure
Several cricketing nations do not know how to streamline their pipeline of players across age levels and categories of competence. If in doubt, just observe the prodigious names who have fallen by the wayside for Pakistan or the West Indies. Indian cricket, over the last two decades, has been impeccably structured, such that when not playing for India, a promising player can find numerous avenues of development, be it through the Ranji or the Vijay Hazare trophies, the India-A side, multiple state-level tournaments or the IPL.
Magnificent mentorship
What do Roger Binny, Dav Whatmore, Bharat Arun, Rahul Dravid, and Hrishikesh Kanitkar have in common? They have all coached and mentored a World Cup-winning India U-19 team. The presence of wise heads who are happy to let players play their own game but are careful enough to weed out their technical and psychological shortcomings has been vital to India’s sustained success at the U-19 level.
No outsized egos
Since 2000, just about every famous Indian cricketer has honed their skills at the U-19 World Cup. From captains like Kohli, Ishan Kishan and Prithvi Shaw to world-class batters like Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Suresh Raina and Cheteshwar Pujara to all-round match winners such as Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar, soon-to-be stars have never been the focus of singular attention. Every team, notwithstanding its key players, has championed the ethos of the collective over the individual, eliminating the possibility of outsized egos to derail results.
Nerveless on the big stage
There is something about watching the likes of Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar, Dhoni and Kohli win match after match for India that makes their compatriots believe that Indians are meant to own the big stage. In the absence of the same kind of cricketing pedigree, nations like New Zealand and South Africa have wilted under pressure. But Indians, for the most part, have found a way to control their nerves. This does not mean that India cannot lose a U-19 final (they have lost three). Instead, it means that when confined inside a cricketing cauldron, the chances of Indians coming out of it unscathed are far higher than just about any other team in the world.
Last updated on 11 Feb 2022
