Exposure we gained was vital ahead of U-19 World Cup next year: Coach Mubarak

Head Coach Jehan Mubarak talks to the Sri Lanka Under-19 cricketers during practice on their recent tour to the UAE

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Under19 Head Coach Jehan Mubarak said that his team gained vital exposure ahead of the Under19 World Cup next year for which Sri Lanka are the hosts, following their recent tour of the UAE.

Preparations for the World Cup began with the tour to UAE last month on the invitation of the Afghanistan Cricket Board who hosted a Tri-Nation U19 tournament with Bangladesh as the third team and played Sri Lanka in two U19 ODI matches. Result-wise it was not a great tour for Sri Lanka winning only one match – the opener of the Tri-National U19 against Bangladesh which was a day game, and losing five matches played under lights which included the two U19 ODIs.

Mubarak put it down to ‘lack of experience’ of playing under lights and facing fast bowlers of extreme pace from Afghanistan and Bangladesh which the boys have not experienced at school cricket level.

“This is the first time that we have started an under 19 program so early in preparation for the World Cup next year. A lot of the boys are very early into their Under19 cycle and a lot of them were on their first tour. The first game (day) we won, all the others were day-night games which we lost,” said Mubarak. “To me it was to do a little bit about the skills. Afghanistan and Bangladesh had good fast bowlers and the wickets helped the fast bowlers. That is one area we need to work on, but overall it was the experience and maturity in handling situations.”

“The other factor is we were all playing school cricket. The annual plan was for our first tour to be in August. West Indies were supposed to come here, but then Afghanistan reached out and said that they were playing a series with Bangladesh and whether we would also join. It was still worth it because the boys may be young but the exposure was very important. Even for us to know where we are from a coaching point of view and for the boys to know that the standard is much higher than school cricket and the mental skills that are needed. Their fast bowlers were bowling easily at 135 kph and sometimes 140 kph. Our boys playing school cricket have not faced bowlers of that speed.”

“There are also other areas that we can improve on – our fielding especially under lights we struggled a little bit. Then there was a lot of wind on the open ground and some of our fast bowlers struggled bowling into the wind whereas their fast bowlers were able to use the wind and swing the ball. Little things like this were good for our boys to know and overall what we need to do to get ready for the World Cup.”

What impressed Mubarak most was the fighting qualities displayed by the boys. “In every game we fought. That game against Afghanistan we were chasing 320 and came close to winning, we never gave up. That attitude I like.”

“When you play tournament format the challenges are different. When you play a bilateral series it is very easy to prepare. Sometimes you have to figure things out in the middle, that exposure or experience is important for them to take responsibility for their cricket. We are working on it,” said Mubarak. “This is the first step we have taken in preparation for the World Cup. We will be looking at the wickets here where there will be more challenges from spin. Our batsmen will also have to play spin well.

“Just because these boys were picked on this tour it doesn’t mean that they are guaranteed to play in the World Cup. We have told them also. There are a lot of other boys out there who are fighting hard to get into the team. There are other tournaments, school matches and super provincial U19 which the selectors will be looking at. Definitely other players can come in.”

Of the 15 players who went on the tour 12 are eligible for next year’s World Cup. “We took Shevon Daniel as captain and Trevin Mathews to give a little bit of stability because we felt that without at least two or three senior players they might struggle. That was the case but Shevon captained the team well. He brought the culture in that captains who have played before have laid the foundations and we owe it to them to do better. Because of that even guys who were touring for the first time weren’t scared, they also came out of their shell. That was a big positive.”

Daniel won’t be around for the next World Cup as this tour probably will be his last. On his likely successor Mubarak said: “There is no one clear cut at the moment to take over the u19 captaincy from Shevon. I would like to say that we have this group, but still these boys haven’t captained their school, so they don’t have that leadership experience captaining their first eleven team yet.”