In 2014 at the Under-19 World Cup Anuk Ferrnando of Sri Lanka was the highest wicket taker with 15 wickets while South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada was placed second with 14 wickets. After four years Rabada is one of the best fast bowlers in the world with 151 Test wickets and 83 ODI wickets while Anuk has played a handful of first class games.
In the 2018 Under-19 World Cup Hasitha Boyagoda made 307 runs in four games with a record breaking 191 and at an average of 76.51 while Indian Prithiv Shaw made 261 runs in six matches at 65.25.
Eight months after the Under 19 World Cup, Shaw made his Test debut and scored a century on his first appearance and prior to that he has played 14 First Class, 22 List A and nine IPL games while Boyagoda has only played one List A match (where he didn’t get to bat) and seven SL Super 4 T20 matches where he batted in the lower middle order.
Well, this shows how our domestic cricket is screwed up and the competitive level of our domestic cricket when compared to others.
Remember Bhanuka Rajapakse who was one of the top runs scorers in the 2010 Under-19 World Cup was never given a chance and players like Babar Azam, Kraig Brathwaite, Paul Stirling, Sabbir Rahman, Mominul Haque, Jimmy Neesham, Corey Anderson, Ben Stokes, Joe Root, Lokeh Rahul who played with him in the same World Cup and performed lower than him are now giants in international cricket for their respective countries. Not to forget Chathura Peiris and Jayampathi in the same World Cup.
And remember how they ruined the career of Avishka Fernando who set so many U-19 records. Just gave him a single ODI match against Australia and against Starc and when he got out for a 0, (which is expected against a quality attack) he was never given another chance.
Why do we play Under 19 cricket if the top performers are not given a proper chance?
Vimukthi Adithya