India’s fans are yet to recover from the nightmare of 19 November, 2023. It will probably take a long time for those wounds to heal for Indian cricket supporters but it seems like Australia are just not done inflicting new wounds on top of the old.
In the past 12 months Australian men’s Test squad have demolished India in the World Test Championship (WTC) final, and then we know what happened in the Ahmedabad finale. You would have thought that would be enough for the next five years at least. But no, Australia’s under-19 cricketers joined the party and spoiled what was a near perfect campaign of India’s under-19 squad.
The sullen faces of the Indian under-19 cricketers told a story of how hearts were broken. Some of them may never get a chance like this on a world stage ever because their paths will be different from hereon. Everyone will have their own journey which will be difficult to predict, because some of the biggest performers at under-19 level have disappeared without a trace. Very few have gone on to dominate the senior level, at least for India.
Australia though do not care about all these emotions. They are like a well-oiled machine keen to dominate the sport. Even in women’s cricket, their squad across all three formats are the best in the world. In fact their women’s squad is probably one of the best ever in the history of cricket. Their women’s squad would probably compete with some of the best sporting sides as one of the greatest.
It is all a tribute to the strong sporting culture that has been built in Australia over the years which has led to them being the most dominant cricket side across all formats, age-groups and genders.
In the current cycle, they have only three missing pieces of silverware for now:
Under-19 women's T20 World Cup
Men's T20 World Cup
Men’s Champions Trophy
In the coming months they could well add all these titles to their trophy cabinet and be the undisputed world champion of cricket!
Australia beat India by 6 wickets to win the ICC World Cup 2023 title.
(Photo: PTI)
This is all a tribute to a strong Australian cricket culture which breeds excellence and is not resting on laurels. They may not have the money, talent pool and resources that India has but they have a structure that breeds champions.
They have invested in all their cricket and that shows in the performances of their sides. Most importantly what has worked for their cricket has been the fact that they have not allowed past laurels to come in the way of planning.
India had also started developing a similar system but tailored for the system prevailing here, but the menace of Covid19 helped dismantle the carefully built structure.
Rahul Dravid as Head of Cricket at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) created a pathway for the under-19 boys with regular series and proper planning for the way ahead. The focus of the time that Dravid was with NCA was not just the World Cup but also the series in between. That ensured that the boys were all match ready when the World Cup took place.
The other thing that Dravid did was to end the concept of a player continuing to play under-19 World Cup more than once. We have had situations in the past when boys have played two Under-19 World Cups, which is an amazing thing considering that most of them are at least 17 when they play the first time.
Rahul Dravid coached the Indian Under-19 team that played the ICC Under-19 World Cup under Prithvi Shaw
(Photo: PTI)
The same under-19 boys once when they graduate also had to go through the India A wringer before being considered for the highest level. Only Shubman Gill and Prithvi Shaw managed to jump the queue just months after winning the 2018 Under-19 World Cup because of the immense talent they possessed.
But then Covid19 struck, and the world came to a standstill. India’s well-planned pathway programme had to be halted. This meant that the under-19 cricket games came to a halt and of course even the India A programme was stalled. On top of it India’s domestic cricket also ground to a halt, except of course the IPL.
The India A boys started getting to play international cricket as bilateral white ball series were purely featuring the second-string guys. The India under-19 programme was also cut into pieces with the focus just being the World Cup!
So, for example the side led by Yash Dhull which won the World Cup in 2022 in West Indies did not play any game thereafter because of the Dravid doctrine. The new lot did not get together till later in 2023 because the focus was only on the World Cup. For close to a year and a half there was no cricket played by India’s under-19 squad.
This was a big change from the past when regular India under-19 series would be played.
Australia’s under-19 squad on the other hand played England both at home and away in not just ODIs, but also in four-day ‘Tests’.
India’s under-19 World Cup for the last two editions have almost become predictable.
They play a quadrangular at home in one venue with two overseas sides and an India B side alongside the main squad. Before that there is the Asia Cup under-19 event and then another tournament before the World Cup. It has become a very predictable pattern.
In between if the IPL auction is held before the World Cup, the players go in either as crorepatis or as talent to watch out for. This leads to unnecessary hype around certain players even before a ball is bowled in the World Cup. In the recent World Cup, we saw the hype around Arshin Kulkarni, the seam bowling all-rounder who is expected to be the next Hardik Pandya. The tournament returns of Kulkarni featured a hundred at an average of 27 across seven games with four wickets to boot.
As expected, India’s boys dominate the tournament stats in terms of batting and bowling, but they faltered when it mattered the most!
In the past few editions India’s under-19 boys have also been victims of the hype around them. Shaw has disappeared. Shivam Mavi and Kamlesh Nagarkoti were meant to be the wild things who would destroy batting line-ups. Today both are only seen for a couple of months a year. The next lot of Dhruv Jurel, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ravi Bishnoi and Tilak Varma are now on national duty in different formats.
Most of the boys from the 2022 batch have just flattered to deceive for now.
The Australian tea, with the 2024 ICC Under-19 World Cup trophy.
(Photo: ICC)
In Australia there is no big money on offer at junior level, but there is a professional outlook to the game. The focus there is to be the best in the world.
Maybe in India we are just happy doing enough to stay afloat. We have seen the adulation that the under-19 sides have received when they come back from World Cup triumphs. While these are good to boost the morale of the boys and girls, sometimes the end goal is forgotten amidst all the hoopla. For the men who organise it is a time to gloat in reflect glory, but that is not the case in Australia. They have a well-oiled corporate structure where they celebrate the wins along the way but do not lose sight of the fact that they need to keep winning.
In India we sometimes forget that the real focus of cricket at India A and under-19 level is development, results are incidental!
The whole hype around under-19 cricket started in 2008 when a certain Virat Kohli led a bunch to the title. The fact is today just two from the squad are at the highest level, while the rest have either retired or are just toiling away in anonymity.
That triumph coincided with the start of the IPL. They were picked via a draft instead of an open auction. Things changed thereafter and hence all the hype probably.
For Indian cricket to not have bad days like November 19, 2023, or February 11, 2024, things must change off the field rather than on it.
Once that is taken care of there will be plenty to cheer for everyone!
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