Watching the water drain at the Kinrara Oval is a spectacle in itself © Dileep Premachandran

The second semi-final to decide which team would play India on Sunday was finely poised. Pakistan had lost two early wickets chasing 261 but Ahmed Shehzad and Umair Amin were rebuilding the run-chase with a plucky counterattack. Each boundary, every outside edge, and even mistimed shots were cheered by several Pakistan fans. The party ended abruptly with the heavy clouds, which had gathered during the dinner break, bursting shortly into the Pakistan innings. The rain was monsoonal and it was relentless until the cut-off time.

The match had to be postponed until Saturday but if you spoke to any of the ground staff, they said that if the rain had stopped in time, they could have got the ground ready for play in a jiffy despite the amount of rain.

The Kinrara Oval drains fabulously. Sitting in the press box, I could see puddles of water gathering near the covers but a few minutes later they had disappeared on their own, seeping through the grass.

The ground staff told me the venue had been designed and built by a New Zealand company and they had installed state-of-the-art drainage facilities. The ground slopes gradually as you move from the pitch towards the boundaries and the grass is planted on sandy soil which is ideal for water to percolate. There are also layers of gravel below the sand but the key to the fantastic drainage are the slit pipes that have been placed about three metres under the soil with a gap of one metre between each pipe. The water from the surface seeps into these pipes and it flows towards the larger drains outside the boundary. With the kind of rain Malaysia gets, the Kinrara needs the best drainage it can get.

	If Tim Southee wins the Man-of-the-Tournament award, the trophy will have to be couriered home © Getty Images

It's preview day ahead of the semi-final between Pakistan and South Africa so the team hotel is a must-visit for journalists. Step into the lobby and you are bound to bump into players, coaches, media managers and several others associated with the tournament. Several teams were in transit today, some were arriving in Kuala Lumpur, others preparing to leave Malaysia, while a few were heading out to see the sights.

India were scheduled to visit the Petronas Towers and were milling around the lobby. They had just emerged from a tight semi-final last night and were quietly confident, awaiting the outcome of tomorrow's game. If you ask a senior cricketer, which team they'd rather face in the final, most would spout the routine "It doesn't matter as long as we play to our potential etc etc".

The India U-19 players have got on splendidly with the South Africans but most of them would rather play Pakistan in the final. The reasons are several: Pakistan are the only other unbeaten side in the tournament, an India-Pakistan final would draw sizable crowds and create
atmosphere, and there's the lingering memory of the 2006 final, where Pakistan routed India for below 100.

When asked whether this Indian outfit was stronger than the side in 2006, the Pakistan coach Mansoor Rana kept a straight face and said "I can't judge, I only saw the Indian team for six overs in 2006."

**

Continue reading "Hoping for a big final, and an endless journey back home"

I feel as though I have been in stasis for the past 72 hours. Time has been suspended, inverted, stretched and compressed, with mere snapshots remaining of a ludicrously protracted journey. It all began before daybreak on Monday morning, on the Piccadilly Line in London, onto which I shuffled at six o'clock in the morning, bound for Heathrow Airport. It continued through 13 hours of in-flight poker and serial ipod abuse en route to Singapore, a jewel of a city-state that I have now visited three times, but never for longer than an hour and a half.

Next stop, Auckland. The City of Sails by day; the city of room service and snatched winks of sleep by night. Seven hours in an airport motel were enlivened by a non-functioning room key that refused to let me into my room in the first instance, then refused to allow me to leave thereafter. Then it was down to Dunedin, so far south on the South Island of New Zealand that the next stop would appear to be Antarctica. And then, as I touched down, I realised. The further you travel, the more things stay the same.

It was raining when I landed, but not the sort of rain I've previously associated with the Southern Hemisphere. This was a dank, drizzly type of rain - the type that turns hillsides a lush green and leaves sheep feeling waterlogged and morose. In other words, it was rain that might have been imported direct from the United Kingdom.

Continue reading "Where time becomes a loop"

	New Zealand U-19 bowlers Trent Boult and Anurag Verma before their semi-final against India © George Binoy

There were two players born in Kanpur playing the semi-final between India and New Zealand. One was Tanmay Srivastava, India's No. 3 batsman, while the other was New Zealand medium-pacer Anurag Verma, whose family migrated when he was nine years old. And by coincidence, Tanmay bowled Anurag during the final overs of New Zealand's innings and Anurag duly returned the favour by having Tanmay caught in India's chase. Were they aware that they were born in the same city? You bet.

Anurag's family moved to New Zealand in 2000 and he says that he never played serious cricket while he was in India, only after-school games with friends. After his shift to New Zealand, a friend asked him to play for his team on Saturdays, and he's been playing ever since.

Continue reading "New Zealand's Kanpur connection"

	Pakistan players mingle with their fans after the match © George Binoy

When the dust settled on the quarter-final between Australia and Pakistan, Imad Wasim and Ali Asad might have felt a bit of déjà vu. They had been here before: winning a knock-out match against Australia at an Under-19 World Cup by bowling them out for a low score.

In 2006, Pakistan qualified for the finals by scuttling Australia for 124 after setting a target of 288. Wasim took 3 for 16 with his left-arm spin in that match while Asad had helped rescue Pakistan from 80 for 5 with 69 from 86 balls.

Fast forward two years and there are two significant differences: it was a quarter-final and Australia were batting first. Wasim took 2 for 21 today as Australia were bowled out for 129 and, after Pakistan were reduced to 32 for 3 during their chase, Asad struck an unbeaten 63 off 70 balls to take Pakistan into the semis.

The Australians were understandably downcast after their defeat - their campaign had been weaker than in 2006. The Pakistan team, however, were bubbling with excitement. They cheered loudly as Asad went up to collect his Man-of-the-Match award and raised their volume while he answered questions with a smile that would not go away.

After the formalities had been completed, the Pakistan players did something that I haven't seen so far in the tournament. They went up to the tents and shook hands with the few fans who had vociferously supported them through the match. Two security guards went with the players as they mingled with the crowd and you couldn't help but feel that, although it was better to be safe than sorry, the measure was a bit unnecessary.

The deputy president of the Malaysian Cricket Association, P Krishnaswamy,
who is also the chairman of the organising committee of the Under-19 World
Cup, had told me that he expected crowds, relatively speaking, to turn up
from the quarter-finals onwards. And sure enough, apart from the school
children who were being brought to the game to spread awareness, there was
a sizeable Indian contingent cheering their team on in the match against England.
There were a few English supporters as well but you had to search for them
because they weren't heard. They didn't have much to cheer about all day.
I haven't been to a Bangladesh game in the tournament but word is that
their support has been strong.

The press box at the Kinrara Oval has also been sparsely populated during
the first round of the tournament. Apart from the ICC officials,
television, and radio commentary crews, there are only a handful of
journalists: three from India, one from South Africa who works for the
official website, and a few from Sri Lanka. I've heard that there were
several Pakistan journalists in Johor so they should arrive at the Kinrara
for their quarter-final against Australia tomorrow.

However, there was a stack of uncollected media passes in the press box. I
spotted one belonging to a Mumbai journalist, who had applied for
accreditation but not yet made the trip to Kuala Lumpur. While travelling
by taxi, the journalist I was with got a call from a TV reporter in India
asking for sound bytes from Malaysia regarding India's progress. I had
heard that in 2006, the press box gradually filled up as India advanced in
the tournament and it was a packed house for the finals. There's no reason
to believe that 2008 will be any different if India are one of the teams
playing on March 2.

	Paul Baldwin (right) oversees a washed-out game in Scotland © Donald MacLeod/The Scotsman

On one of my first days in Kuala Lumpur, I met a man who said he was an umpire at the Under-19 World Cup. His name was Paul Baldwin and he said he was from Germany. An umpire from Germany? Paul Baldwin certainly wasn’t a German name. I had to wait nearly a week and made a trip to Penang to find out more.

Paul’s father was in the British Royal Air Force and he was posted in Germany so Paul moved there when he was 17. He didn’t play cricket for about five to six years because he says he just wasn’t interested.

“One day I saw a game of cricket at the air force base,” Paul says. “I then started playing and ended up being captain of the side.”

Paul took his first steps towards becoming an umpire during casual club games in Germany. Someone from the batting side would often stand in as the umpire. So one day when Paul was officiating, the opposition appealed for lbw when the batsman was miles outside his crease. Paul concurred. Paul's team-mates were livid and said he couldn’t umpire again until he took an umpiring course.

Continue reading "Howzat? Nicht aus"

	I was personally pleased to finally score my first ODI hundred earlier against Netherlands © ICC

The players came into this tournament knowing qualification was an absolute must for South
Africa, so I'm almost as relieved as I am happy that we are going to the Women's World Cup in 2009.

I expected a slightly tougher game against Ireland in our semi-final, but once again we put in an outstanding team effort, with our bowling attack in absolutely superb form.

We've obviously had some interesting matches, against teams of very different standards, but everybody has to start somewhere and I hope teams such as Papua New Guinea and Bermuda would have learned some lessons.

I think the Papua New Guinea opening bowlers have been one of the most difficult attacks we have faced this past week. If they continue to work on their game, there is no reason why they can't be more competitive in the future.

For us, there have been many star performers, although I have been really proud of the way Olivia Anderson has adapted to international cricket.

Continue reading "Happy and relieved"

	Pakistan celebrate their victory over Netherlands and a place in the Women's World Cup © ICC

It was a World Cup win for Pakistan’s men team in Australia back in 1992 that inspired me to take up the game, so to think that I am going to follow in the footsteps of some of my cricketing heroes is amazing.

I don’t think anybody in my family would have thought that when I first picked up a cricket bat aged six-and-a-half and played against my brothers and cousins in the backyard that I would go onto lead my country in the sport. After yesterday’s result, when we beat Netherlands by 94 runs, even Dad might forgive me for all the plants we used to destroy in those backyard games. I don’t think there could have been prouder parents in Pakistan last night.

I tried to treat the semi-final against the Netherlands in the same way as I would any other match. After waking up and getting some breakfast, I finished praying and then did some visualization work to help me with my batting and bowling.

Continue reading "The World Cup beckons"

	Members of Australia's Air Force Base and their families watch the cricket ... © George Binoy

So when I saw a few people coming in nearly an hour early to the
Australia-Sri Lanka game at the Penang Sports Club, I assumed they were
related to the Australian cricketers. They had come well equipped with two
massive Australian flags, an over-sized ice box full of beer and soft
drinks – but mainly beer – an inflatable Wallaby and a pump to inflate it.
They were enthusiastic enough to haul a football goalpost about 50 yards
towards their tent so that they could drape their flags from it. I went up
to ask which cricketer’s family they were.

It turned out that they weren’t family. There’s a Royal Air Force base in
Butterworth, Penang and these fans were stationed there. There were about
ten before the start of the match but Grant, who appeared to be the chief
enthusiast, said he expected about 80 to come in. They have an Australian
Defence Force (ADF) cricket team and its banner, which has a pouncing tiger with
claws bared for a symbol, was signed by all the U-19 cricketers and hung
over the tent. The icing on the cake, however, was a “Bay 13” sign which
hung between the Australian flags, in honour of the famous stand at the
MCG which is renowned for its not-so-sophisticated behavior.

Continue reading "Rival fans make their presence felt "

	Nepal's players leave the field after completing a tight three-wicket win © George Binoy

Nepal finished third in Group C after a thrilling three-run victory against Namibia at the University Sains Malaysia. It was a finish meant for packed stands yet there were only a few Nepal supporters cheering on every dot ball towards the end of the Namibian run-chase. Overs were not an issue but the pressure had been mounting because the Namibian batsmen were simply not able to get Nepal’s spinners away. They were chasing a target of 165 and the equation had boiled down to six runs to win with two wickets in hand.

Morne Engelbrecht, the No. 9 batsman, swept the spinner in the air towards midwicket but the ball fell safe. The batsmen ran one but wanted another, the second run was fraught with risk. The throw at the bowler’s end was good and No. 10 batsman Elandre Oosthuizen was run out. The last pair added two more but with three runs to get, Engelbrecht was bowled by Gyanendra Malla. Nepal’s players converged on each other and celebrated in a heap before getting up to shake hands with the Namibians. As the jubilant Nepal players walked off, it was hard not to feel for their young opposition.

And right through it all, Paras Khadka, the Nepal captain, was egging his team-mates on. After each dot ball you could hear him clapping hard and shouting encouragements in Nepalese. He’s been in such situations before, most memorably during the 2006 Under-19 World Cup Plate Championship semi-finals against South Africa, when Paras bowled the last over with ten runs to defend.

Continue reading "'Let’s hope for the best'"

	Cricket anyone? © George Binoy

University Sains Malaysia in Penang is one of the biggest educational institutions in the county: it has about 20,000 students and is spread over 500 acres. And nestled on the border of its campus, by the main road, is the cricket ground where the Under-19 World Cup matches are being staged.

Nambia are playing Nepal today, a match which will decide the third and fourth spots in Group C. There are between 100-200 schools kids in the tents so I head over to have a chat. Malaysia beat Zimbabwe on Wednesday so I assume they'll be pretty excited about it.

There's a solitary net with a matting surface in one corner of the ground and a couple of boys, who are about 13, are having a hit. A red plastic chair is being used as a makeshift set of stumps and the batsman isn't wearing pads. "Aren't you afraid of getting hit in the shins?" I ask. "No!" says Farhan. Soon enough, the bowler, Nasiruddin, bowls one on the legs and Farhan gets hit on the thigh. He rubs it off, smiles, and is ready to bat again.

Continue reading "Malaysian kids make cricket-watching debut"

	Urooj Mumtaz claimed a hat-trick in Pakistan's game against Zimbabwe © International Cricket Council

We have a really strong side – we have a very good bowling attack, with pace and spin options, and we have worked really hard on our fielding which has been good in this tournament so far. We know we have some more work to do on our batting, especially after six run outs in opening game against Ireland, but we showed some good form in our victory over Zimbabwe.

I am really enjoying the playing conditions in Stellenbosch, although the strong winds are a bit different to those back at home, but I have tried to use that to my advantage when I have been bowling. I also love the fact the outfield is soft – it hurts a lot more to dive around on the hard, dusty fields of Pakistan.

Continue reading "A good beginning "

	James Harris: "Ice Skating? We've been told, if we're terrible, not to go on" © Getty Images

Starbucks has been a haunt on the tour so far, mostly because of the free internet which is great when you need to email stories the end of the day. It's not just the odd journalist who spends quality time there, several of the players go there too, to use the internet to keep in touch with people at home. It's a long tour with plenty of action happening so the families want constant updates.

"I spend a lot of time here communicating on the internet," says James Taylor, the England opening batsman, who hasn't been giving his middle-order team-mates a chance to bat. "It's free here. So I keep in touch with people back home on my i-Touch. It's the easiest way to communicate and it's cheap."

So how does Taylor spend his time when he's not playing matches or practicing? "When I have time off I generally just chill by the pool and just try and relax as much as I can. In the tense environment of the World Cup it's important to relax. I spend my time sun bathing by the pool, or
in my room watching DVDs or occasionally shopping."

In a foreign country, the weather and cuisine are favourite topics and the food in Malaysia is extremely different to the bread and meat based staples in England. "It's different [the Malaysian food] but you learn to adapt," Taylor says, before adding that "the odd McDonalds goes down
well."

Continue reading "James' i-Touch and Einstein's letter"

	The celebration after his first wicket in Trinidad © Getty Images

For almost all the players involved, the Under-19 World Cup is the most publicised event they've been part of on the international circuit. But there's one who has had a bigger experience: this is Malachi Jones' second World Cup but unlike others who played the U-19 tournaments in 2004 and 2006, Malachi's prior World Cup experience was in the Caribbean in 2007.

Bermuda have just been thrashed by ten wickets in their Group D match against England at the Royal Selangor Club. Malachi scored 2 and didn't take a wicket in 5.4 overs. Believe it or not, he feels the heat more in Malaysia than he did in the West Indies, both literally and figuratively.

He was the youngest member of the Bermuda squad in the Caribbean and not much was expected of him then but he's one of the senior boys in the U-19 team with international experience. "I have to produce more than I did at the senior level, so I feel a little more pressure on my game," Malachi says. "I think it's getting to me a little bit. I'm trying to settle down and not worry about the team looking up to me so much."

Continue reading "From one World Cup to another"

	Half of Ireland's current squad played in the last World Cup including Caitriona Beggs, who also featured in the 2000 edition of the tournament © Cricinfo Ltd

To say that we were disappointed when the tournament was cancelled in November would be an understatement. All of our preparation was done with a view to travelling to Pakistan. Pakistani cricketers in Ireland spoke to us about conditions and traditions in their home country, and everybody altered their diets to prepare for the change there would be in available food.

Two of my brothers, Dom and Ed, have toured in Asia before and they were able to give me and my sister Cecelia an idea of what to expect, what food we should eat and what to bring with us. Not to be however, and training began again a few weeks after the tournament was cancelled.

Continue reading "Red Irish faces, and playing the unknown"

	"For me, cricket has taken me everywhere. You’ve got to grab your opportunities" © George Binoy

While walking around the Kinrara Oval on Saturday, a journalist friend pointed someone out to me who said that he was a fast bowler who had bowled Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid at the nets when India were in Kuala Lumpur for the DLF Cup in 2006. So I went up to him and asked him who he was and felt quite sheepish when he replied that he had been playing for the Malaysian national side for 15 years and captained them for eight. Suresh Navaratnam is 33-years-old now. He began playing for Malaysia in 1993, at the age of 18 and led the country from December 1998 to 2006.

A common gripe, and a realistic one, in smaller cricketing countries is that you can’t make a living out of playing cricket. Suresh, though he understands the larger problems, has had an extremely different experience with the sport. “People say, in this country, that cricket won’t take you anywhere,” Suresh said. ”But for me, cricket has taken me everywhere. You’ve got to grab your opportunities.”

Suresh’s family is originally from Sri Lanka – his grandfather was from there – but his parents were born in Malaysia and so was he. He took up the game at the age of 12, under the influence of his father and uncles who used to play actively. Why choose cricket when other sports were so much bigger in Malaysia? “I just followed my father,” he says.

Suresh was born in 1975, and during his formative years cricket was a rarity on local television. Yet he says his early heroes were Javed Miandad and then Steve Waugh. He used to read about the sport in papers and when people went to England and returned, he would soak up information from publications like Wisden and The Cricketer. A local channel used to telecast an hour cricket highlights once a week. They were mostly old matches involving England and West Indies but he used to watch and it was around then that he began to admire Curtly Ambrose.

His family had a significant impact on his early cricket days but his father died a year after Suresh was 14, a year after he began playing cricket. In some ways, he says, that became an encouragement for him to do well. He rose through the ranks of school cricket, played for his state, Selangor, then went on to play at the junior levels for Malaysia before breaking into the national side at the age of 18.

In 1996, Suresh got a major break. Graham Halbish, who was with the Australian cricket board at the time, brought two Australian teams - the seniors and an A side – to Malaysia to play a Super 8s tournament. It was an experimental format – eight players in a team and 14-overs-a-side contest. Suresh was part of an international team captained by Allan Border which included players like Sanath Jayasuriya, Aravinda de Silva and Chaminda Vaas, fresh from their World Cup victory. Suresh was the only Malaysian in the squad.

Even though he went on to represent Malaysia in the Commonwealth Games in 1998, that Super 8 tournament, though it failed to take off as a concept, is Suresh’s favourite cricketing experience. He played against the best Australian players of the time – Mark Taylor, Ricky Ponting, Mark Waugh, Michael Slater – and future stars such as Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden who were part of the A team.

Suresh’s performances must have caught Halbish’s eye for Halbish invited Suresh to Australia to play for his club Mulgrave. So in August 1996, he was playing the Super 8s and in October he was in Australia, where he went on to play for four seasons.

Suresh says cricket’s given him a lot. He went to university in Malaysia to study sports science and he got picked for the course primarily because he was a national player. He admits that he’s had a lot of luck along the way but says that you’ve just got to keep at it.

	Colin and Charles Amini are continuing the family tradition © George Binoy

Most of us are influenced – to a certain extent at least – by our parents, and they by their parents. So when all the members of your family sitting at your dinner table are national cricketers, it’s only natural that you tend to take up the sport. That’s precisely what happened to Colin and Charles Amini. Colin’s the captain of the Papua New Guinea Under-19 side and Charles jnr, his younger brother, is also part of the squad. Their aunt, Cheryl, is the media manager of the Papua New Guinea team, and she talked me through several generations of cricketers from the Amini family.

Her grandfather, Amini (Colin and Charles jnr’s great-grandfather), began playing cricket in the early 1900s. He used to form a team and travel by boat to Port Moresby, the capital city and main cricketing centre of Papua New Guinea, to challenge the city teams. And so it began.

Continue reading "Papua New Guinea: How many Aminis?"

	Bermuda's Under-19 squad beat the heat by wearing shorts © George Binoy

However, the tournament was officially opened on Friday during a short
ceremony at the Kinrara Cricket Academy and the teenagers had to shed
their jerseys and shorts and get spruced up. You couldn’t help but feel
for them as they stood in single file on the field, looking spiffy but
sweaty in their blazers, trousers and boots. Not all of them came
completely formally dressed though: Bermuda beat some of the heat by
wearing bright red Bermuda shorts with their blazers, while South Africa
might not have been the smartest in their collared t-shirts but they
certainly looked more comfortable.

The media contingent had grown considerably and there were several local
journalists, from print and television, as well as one from Papua New
Guinea. The families of the players also formed a sizable section of the
crowd. The families of Bermudian players Rodney Trott and Malachi Jones
were here, as well as several parents of the Australian and Ireland teams,
who announced their presence by applauding loudly when their teams walked
out. There were loud cheers for the local Malaysian team and when Pakistan
marched out, the claps were almost in respect for the champions of 2004
and 2006.

Continue reading "Players feel the heat in opening ceremony"

	Clive Rose's on-field performances will be closely watched by his father, Jude © Getty Images

However, there were hardly any at the team hotel on Thursday and so when I saw a man with a backpack and camera at the Club Aman, where Australia were playing West Indies in a warm-up match, I labeled him as a journalist from a distance.

Turned out that I was wrong. He was Jude Rose, whose son Clive is a left-arm orthodox spinner in the Australian Under-19 squad. He’s in Malaysia following Australia’s, and Clive’s, progress in the tournament. Jude was there first but there are more coming. Fast bowler James Pattinson’s father is expected as are allrounder David King’s and captain Michael Hill’s.

Continue reading "With a little help from dad "

	Wayne Parnell, South Africa's U-19 captain, signs miniature cricket bats © George Binoy

It's the first time the Under-19 World Cup is being staged in a non-Test country and the build-up to it has been quiet. Perhaps that's the way it should be, to reduce the pressure and spotlight on the teenage contenders. I spotted two small banners advertising the tournament at the airport and none on the drive into Kuala Lumpur. But walking towards the team hotel, it was impossible to miss the decorations in red, pink and gold. False alarm. The dressing up was for the Chinese New Year and not the U-19 World Cup. There were no banners in the lobby either announcing that the cream of cricket's teenagers were in Malaysia.

Continue reading "A quiet beginning"

	Roger Page with his remarkable collection of books © Siddhartha Vaidyanathan

The cricket-playing world contains its set of pilgrimages. Few West Indian fans leave Barbados before paying respect to Frank Worrell's grave and Aussie diehards do the same with Victor Trumper's tombstone in Sydney. For lovers of cricket literature, though, there is a venue that one cannot miss: Roger Page's unbelievable collection in a suburb outside Melbourne.

Page began as a scorer and statistician in Melbourne before moving to a profession in cricket books back in 1969. Over the years he's built up a remarkable collection of close to 10,000 books, all stacked and catalogued in his spacious house in Macleod, Victoria. So prolific is the collection that even his kitchen isn't spared – with two stacks beside the cutlery.

Continue reading "A cricket-lit lover's dream"