School cricket needs reforming to win a Under-19 World Cup: Mubarak

• Says Under-19 World Cup fast bowlers better than our club bowlers

Sri Lanka boasts of a school system that probably no other cricket playing country can match, but the recently concluded ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup only highlighted the fact that it is not the pathway to win an Under-19 world title.

Sri Lanka entered the Super Sixes but bowed out of the semi-finals when they suffered defeats at the hands of West Indies and South Africa and in the Group stage against Australia. Sri Lanka’s wins were against Zimbabwe and Namibia. This is not the first time it has happened and it won’t be the last unless the standard of school cricket is improved or a tournament is organised to make it more competitive.

“Countries like Australia, India, Pakistan and South Africa don’t rely on the school system, they have other systems that are more effective than our school system like regional systems. India have other forms of cricket which are of a higher standard,” said Sri Lanka’s Under-19 Coach Jehan Mubarak.

“We need to upgrade the standard of our school cricket and play on better wickets number one, and we need to make the matches more competitive. A lot of schools start a match with spinners. We need to play quality fast bowling regularly. Five or six of our boys played club cricket but they were not exposed to the level of fast bowling they experienced in the World Cup. The Under-19 fast bowlers were better than our club bowlers, especially the South African and Australian attack.”

It seems the Under-19 cricketers are also going through the same problems that the senior team faced during their Cricket World Cup campaign last year.

“It was the top order batting which was a concern right throughout the tournament. Pulindu (Perera) has been our main run scorer for the season. His failure was a big problem for us. It puts pressure on the middle order,” said Mubarak.

“We struggled against pace bowlers from Australia and South Africa. Australia had a very good pace attack. We struggled also in strike rotation against pace, spin also to some extent. Australia had four fast bowlers and South Africa played five against us. They identified the areas and went all out with pace.”

“We struggled because of the adaptability and the mindset to face some challenges without taking a backward step. Adaptability under pressure was an error, some of them went into a shell. They were just trying to survive. Along with the skill, you need the mindset from a batting point of view to be more positive and whatever the challenges you have, to take it on and try to revert the pressure a little bit onto the bowlers. If you just occupy the crease, the good bowlers are going to get you out.”

“As a team overall, we were not good enough but there are individuals who will go onto don national colours in a year or two. If we are going to rely on one or two players to win a World Cup, it will not materialise.”

The cycle of the present coaching staff ends in March and whether some of them will be retained for the next Under19 World Cup in two years in Namibia and Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka Cricket will have to decide. 

– (ST)