U19 World Cup, Divyansh Saxena, Tanzim Hasan Sakib
Kartik Tyagi. (Credits: Twitter)

India are just one win away from defending their ICC U19 World Cup title. The youngsters thrashed Pakistan by ten wickets in the semifinal to storm into the final. The Boys in Blue will take on the winner of the second semifinal between New Zealand and Bangladesh in the title-decider.

India continue to be the most dominant side in the history of the competition. They have won the competition four times, followed by Australia who have won it thrice. Pakistan have won the U19 World Cup twice while England, South Africa and West Indies have won it once each.

The competition has also produced some big names for India. The likes of Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh and Ravindra Jadeja are some of the prominent names who first made a name for themselves by impressing in the U19 World Cup.

Yashasvi Jaiswal
Yashasvi Jaiswal (Credits: Twitter)

Reason of not hosting the ICC U19 World Cup:

While India continue to be the most successful side in the competition, their failure to not host it even once is really baffling. Starting from 1988, the ICC has organised the biennial event 13 times including the current one. For a country that has never shied away from working for the cause of the game, not hosting the U19 World Cup is really baffling.

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One of the reasons behind it could be the revenue issue. The U19 World Cup is not a profitable proposition for the hosts which might have stopped BCCI from expressing their interest in hosting it. The ICC reserves TV rights for the tournaments it conducts.

And recently, former BCCI treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry and former BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah spoke on the same. They, however, did not point out the revenue issue. Chaudhry said that BCCI spends crore in domestic cricket which is not a profitable venture either and thus the question of revenue does not arise.

He clearly put the blame on ICC. On the other hand, Shah made it clear that BCCI is not opposed to hosting the competition.

“This question should be directed to the ICC. It depends on them how they wish to host and promote the U-19 World Cup,” Chaudhry was quoted as saying by The New Indian Express. “I don’t think lack of profitability is a reason behind India not hosting it. The BCCI has been spending crores on domestic cricket, which is a non-profitable venture. The U-19 World Cup not being held in India is more of an ICC matter than the BCCI being reluctant.

“The ICC’s Executive Board takes the call on allocation of World Cups. The last time this was done was in 2014, when the cycle for 2015-2023 was announced. It appears that the BCCI never expressed willingness to host the junior event,” he added.

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Shah, on the other hand, opined:

“I don’t think we have anything against the U-19 World Cup. Lack of revenue is not the reason. It’s just that it is still to come to India. On the other hand, it has been good for our boys that they have won it in conditions they don’t encounter at home. It helps in their development. And taking it to places like Malaysia and UAE helps the promotion of the game.”

 

 

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