[Match Thread] PNG U19 vs Zim U 19

It is bad with a best shot at 15th, now.

It's an embarassment, really. We now have the dubious honour of playing Namibia to see who finishes last in the tournament. If this is our next generation of players, then on the basis of this tournament, we're screwed.

Historically, Zimbabwe always overperformed at the U19 World Cup. This tournament & the previous 2, we may as well not have bothered turning up, for all the good it's done us.

Disastrous. Yes, the last 3 U19 CWCs have been absolutely disastrous. We have taken cricket to the masses over the last few years, and the results are not showing that on the field for the age groups level. What does that really mean?

What does this tell about our future? Are we headed the Kenya way?

I dont know. We may get a couple of players out of this batch. Lake, Burl, Jongwe, Mayavo.

Jemisi wrote:I dont know. We may get a couple of players out of this batch. Lake, Burl, Jongwe, Mayavo.

I agree! Lake looks a decent all rounder, as does Ryan Burl. Liked what I saw of Jongwe too. But the rest, like Kyle Bowie, Campbell Light and imparticular Matthew Bently look WAY out of their depth. Like Jemisi said, if we could churn out 2 or 3 genuine prospects a year from the under 19's system, there's hope. It's just a case of holding onto them.

Moor, Dylan Higgins, Tendai Chitara, Mushangwe and Nathan Waller (and Callum Price to a degree) are all good examples....though only three are currently playing FC cricket 😂

I forgot Kasuza. He will feature in more FC level stuff at least.

Most U-19 sides usually hope to provide 1 or 2 players to the senior side per World Cup. If you can squeeze 3 players its awesome and I don't think anyone has ever produced more than that in terms of genuine prospects. In 2006, Bangladesh fans were [falsely] optimistic about getting to semis at least, and possibly winning the Cup. That year we topped the group (which included eventual champions Pakistan), and the only team that was clearly better than us was India. We faced England in the QF stage and that was a match not even worth following given that we had beaten England in 8 straight encounters in the lead up to the tourney. Well, that team started a choking curse that would make the South Africans envious. They collapsed to lose to England, then went on to beat the daylights out of anyone left to secure the 5th place ignominy.

That team produced just 3 players in Bangladesh's senior side of today...granted those 3 are the key men: Tamim, Shakib, and Mushfiqur. From the current batch it looks as though Anamul Haque and Taskin Ahmed will make it big, and maybe a couple others have a chance.

For Zimbabwe...Burl looks good because he has scored consistently. Remember that a single big innings isn't what is important if the rest of your scores are single digits. But guys like Burl, Haque, Azam, De Koch, and Bowes have been very consistent throughout the tournament. If any nation can find one player to get into the senior side within 2 years...thats a pretty big plus. Most U-19ers don't make it to senior level.

sloandog wrote:Moor, Dylan Higgins, Tendai Chitara, Mushangwe and Nathan Waller (and Callum Price to a degree) are all good examples....though only three are currently playing FC cricket

None from this list have established themselves at any level properly yet, probably barring Chatara. Moor was a big letdown. We haven't really got anybody wreaking havoc at the top flight cricket from the last two U19 world cups. Hamilton, Taibu, BRMT, Chigs, Williams, Sean Ervine, these are the flagship examples from previous editions. We haven't got anyone remotely close to them. And it doesn't look too optimistic from this bunch too.

Kasuza and Mayavo can probably push their case by getting involved in Franchise cricket. Burl looks a prospect, but all three still need to do a lot of hard work.