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By Sa’adi Thawfeeq
With the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup just five months away, Sri Lanka being the hosts are preparing intensely to get their hands on the trophy for the first time. But to do that the standard of cricket that our Under-19 cricketers play has to rise a few notches if they are to beat a team like India.
Sri Lanka Under-19 Head Coach Jehan Mubarak is quite aware of that fact and his squad of players are being put through their paces towards achieving that objective.
“I like to see the Under-19 team play against the Sri Lanka A team and beat them. We have to be competitive at that standard. That is the standard we need to reach if we want to win the Under-19 World Cup,” said Mubarak looking ahead at the upcoming three-match Under-19 ODI series against West Indies and beyond.
“We have to basically beat India to reach that standard and to do that, we need to be able to beat the Sri Lanka A team. We have started to play regularly with the Emerging team, and then with some of the NSL sides.
The Emerging team matches we did well, we lost one but won the last three games. We are trying to play those matches at World Cup venues so that the boys get the experience and exposure. The idea is that by the time it comes to the World Cup the core group would have played at least 20-25 ODI matches and each person would have played at least 5-6 games.”
“Even if they go into clubs we can’t be sure that they will get to play in the positions they play here. This way, they get to play as a team together. Then only team bonding and unity comes. They also get to play at World Cup venues because sometimes club matches are played on pitches that are not great and are not World Cup venues. This way we can kill two birds with one stone playing against higher opposition and playing at World Cup venues.”
Sri Lanka has named a squad of 20 players for the Under-19 ODI series against West Indies starting tomorrow (Sunday) at the Rangiri Dambulla International Cricket Stadium where the tourists are scheduled to play all their matches.
Sineth Jayawardene of Royal College has been named Captain of the Sri Lanka Under-19 team for the ODI series against West Indies. He is one of few players who have appeared in domestic cricket for clubs both first-class and T20. Jayawardene turned out for Panadura SC, while some of his team mates Dinura Kalupahana played for SSC, Malsha Tharupathi for Moors SC, Vishwa Lahiru for Panadura SC and Dumindu Ranatunga for CCC. Ranatunga however is unavailable for the series as he has a back injury and is out for a couple of months.
Under the present hot conditions and bone dry pitches spin is going to play a huge part in the series.
“I think the series will be spin-oriented and we have sufficient spinners,” said Mubarak. “Vihas Thewmika who is our main spinner and Tharana Wimaladharma (both off spinners). Our number one left-arm spinner is Vishwa Lahiru and there is Kavisha Piumal, and leg-spinner Malsha Tharupathi who played in the LPL for B-Love Kandy.” Sri Lanka and West Indies have played only once before in a Under-19 bilateral ODI series in 2004 in Colombo.
The four-match series was drawn 2-all. Sri Lanka was captained by Farveez Maharoof and West Indies by Denesh Ramdin. The overall tally stands at 8 wins to Sri Lanka, and 7 wins to West Indies from 15 matches.
West Indies Under-19 tour itinerary
n27 August: 1st Under-19 ODI at Dambulla
n30 August: 2nd Under-19 ODI at Dambulla
n1 September: 3rd Under-19 ODI at Dambulla
n5-8 September: 1st 4-day Under-19 test at Dambulla
n12-15 September: 2nd 4-day Under-19 test at Dambulla
