U19 Asia Cup and Nepal…

Nepal has crashed out of the U19 World Cup. It is a pity. It is a pity because they lost to Zimbabwe by 2 runs, and were infact coasting at 148/2 in 30 overs at one time chasing 209. They had also let Zimbabwe off the hook when the african team was 94/6 in the first innings. This victory, had it come, would have gone a long way in getting recognition for Nepal in the cricketing circles, and also for establishing a good base for Cricket in Nepal. What is much worse is the fact that Nepal lost both the games not because of the lack of ability or standard, but due to the lack of experience at the highest level.

This brings me to the main point in question. The ACC organized a 6 team Afro Asia U19 cup last year in order to get the teams repared for the U19 world cup. Why? When the 4 strongest teams were from Asia in that competition, why would the ACC go ahead and invite South Africa and Zimbabwe to fill in the rest?? Shouldnt the ACC be more concerned with Asia? Shouldnt they have invited Nepal and Malaysia, the 2 finalists of the U19 ACC Trophy last year and also helped in Nepal getting some good practise ahead of the World Cup?

The ACC would be better off holding an annual U19 Asia Cup featuring the 4 test teams, and UAE, Nepal and Malaysia. This 7 team tournament will be played on a round robin basis and the top two will face off in the final. One would expect that the standard for UAE, Nepal and Malaysia would be raised pplaying in this tournament, and when they go back to play in the ACC U19 cup, or even the ACC Trophy, some of it would rub off on the other teams.

I selected Nepal because it is the best team in Asia at the age level tournaments, and the clinical way in which they keep on knocking off the other Asian teams in age level tournaments is indicative of the fact that in order to challenge them, you have to throw them to the sharks i.e. the test teams. They dont seem to be gaining anything out of playing in the ACC U19 trophies. Malaysia, though a little weak at the senior level, has been consistently runners up at the U19 level, and one would expect them to perform well here. The UAE I selected because that is the best senior side in Asia behind the test teams. Hence it would be to everyones benefit if their youth were given the best oppurtunity to raise their game, and subsequently raise the standard of the senior team as well.

The second annual tournament that I would like the ACC to undertake is one that would feature the A teams of the 4 test countries, and the senior teams of Malaysia, Nepal and UAE.

I am a firm believer in the fact that the cricketing standard of a country is not raised if you focus only on the senior side, or only on 1 age group team. You have to give tiered program to the emerging countries to improve their game. Hence giving Malaysia only the U19 tournament berth, or giving Oman only the senior team tournament berth would not help either one of them that much. But giving both the berths to Malaysia would help them out a lot.