When the ICC under 19 world cup was played for the first time in 1988 in Australia, following were some of the players that represented their respective countries: Stuart Law (Aus), Nasser Hussain (Eng), Mike Atherton (Eng), Venkatapathy Raju (Ind), Pravin Amre (Ind), Chris Cairns (NZ), Mushtaq Ahmed (Pak), Inzamam-ul-Haq (Pak), Sanath Jayasuriya (SL), Brian Lara (WI), Ridley Jacobs (WI), Jimmy Adams (WI). 16 years later some of these players have already retired, and others have established themselves as all time greats. For some reason I have no clue of there was no under 19 world cup for the next ten years before eventually the 1998 episode of it in South Africa produced names like Robert Key (Eng), Virender Sehwag (Ind), Mohammad Kaif (Ind), Harbhajan Singh (Ind), Lou Vincent (NZ), Shoaib Malik (Pak), Abdul Razzaq (Pak), Jacques Rudolph (SA), Ramnaresh Sarwan (WI), Chris Gayle (WI), Marlon Samuels (WI), Mark Vermeulen (Zim). 2 years later in Sri Lanka Michael Clarke (Aus), Nathan Hauritz (Aus), Shane Watson (Aus), Mohammad Kaif (Ind), Yuvraj Singh (Ind), Collins Obuya (Ken), Brendon McCullum (NZ), Mohammad Sami (Pak), Graeme Smith (SA), Jacques Rudolph (SA), Marlon Samuels (WI), Jermaine Lawson (WI), Tatenda Taibu (Zim), Sean Ervine (Zim) all got a chance to prove themselves. Two years further down the line in NZ the under 19 world cup this time produced Umar Gul (Pak) and Parthiv Patel (India).

This brings me to the conclusion that if a player is destined to play at the bigger stage, more often than not you can spot that talent in him from a very early stage. And sometime it is worth giving those players an early start. In countries away from the sub continent though, one has always felt, that there is a reluctance amongst selectors to expose promising player from the under 19 level with little or sometime no first class experience into the bigger stage (can anyone tell me why?) as opposed to in the sub continent where you have people like Sahibzaha Mohammad Shahid Khan Afridi who made their debuts at sweet 16 , and now aged 24 have already played 187 odd one day internationals. Even today India Pakistan and Sri Lanka, even Bangladesh are bold enough to gamble on their under 19 players (EG Latish Malinga, Irfan Pathan, Parthiv Patel, Umar Gul etc).

This is the England squad that finished beaten semifinalists (defeated by eventual winners Pakistan) in the last under 19 world cup which was held in Bangladesh. What are these players doing now? Are they attending the National Academy or playing county cricket? Is there any chance the England selectors might provoke a change in policy from previous eras and given some of these players, perhaps Alaistar Cook who finished 3rd in the man of the tournament competetion a chance in the near or distant future, is there even the slightest chance of at least some of these players making it to the world cup squad of 2007?

Samit Patel (captain) DOB: 30 November 1984 (RHB, SLA) Ravinder Bopara DOB: 4 May 1985 (RHB, RAM) Tim Bresnan DOB: 28 Febraury 1985 (RHB, RAFM) Dan Broadbent DOB: 22 January 1985 (LHB, OS) Alastair Cook DOB: 25 December 1984 (LHB, OS) Steven Davies DOB: 17 June 1986 (LHB, WK) Adam Harrison DOB: 30 October 1985 (RHB, RAFM) James Hildreth DOB: 9 September 1984 (RHB, RAFM) Mark Lawson DOB: 24 October 1985 (RHB, OS) Tom New DOB: 18 January 1985 (LHB, WK) Liam Plunkett DOB: 6 April 1985 (RHB, RAFM) David Stiff DOB: 20 October 1984 (RHB, RAF) Mark Turner DOB: 23 October 1984 (RHB, RAFM) Replaced by Ben Harmison Luke Wright DOB: 7 March 1985 (RHB, RAFM)

Robert Pick - Coach John Abrahams - Manager Nigel Kent - Physio Harginder Singh - Doctor

And yes, before I forget does any one know who is Robert Pick and what if any is his cricket background?

Robert Pick is Andy Pick. Ex-Nottinghamshire pace bowler who had it not been for injuries may have played Test cricket. Played one A-Tour if memory serves me right. Best performance for Notts was probably destroying Gloucestershire at Bristol in the 1987 NatWest Trophy semi final. Set around 220 to win pick upstaged Richard Hadlee in taking 5-21 (I think) to win the gold award and propel Notts to the final.

Of that lot Bopara, Bresnan, Cook, Hildreth, Plunkett and Wright play fairly regularly for their counties. Patel, Lawson, New, Stiff and Harrison have made the odd appearance.

At the moment Cook and Hildreth are the two I would suggest have the best chance of getting anywhere quickly. Stiff has loads of potential allegedly but has a massive no-ball problem. Luke Wright seems far more of a one-day specialist. Lawson did well on his few opportunities with Yorkshire and everyone will look out for him as he's our leggie! Plunkett and Bresnan do well enough, not sure as either have enough that stands them apart from the crowd though.

I know that Vaughan, Trescothick and Anthony McGrath played for the same England U19 side (I watched them play against India U19 at Cardiff) and a very young Flintoff may have been there or thereabouts too.

Owais Shah lead the England side which won the U19 World Cup and that side also included Stephen Peters who was the Alistair Cook of his day but unfortunately hasn't been able to progress as well as was expected.

English players seems to mature later than those on the sub-continent (or indeed those in any of the other test nations). It is very rare that players (and in particular batsmen) perform well at the highest level in their teens/early twenties and most drop out of the side with the best coming back to succeed in their second spells (Stewart and Hussain being good examples). The best policy to get immediate returns out of English players seems to be to select them in their mid to late 20s (recent examples include Strauss and G Jones).