ICC under 19 World Cup - article five

Charles Randall gives his final preview thoughts on the ICC Under 19 World Cup, which begins tomorrow (Friday January 15).

There is an overwhelming temptation to predict that England will not reach the final of the ICC Under-19 World Cup, let alone win the tournament that starts in New Zealand on Friday, but if there is hope it lies in the venue.

The New Zealand authorities were asked to host the event at short notice last summer when the ICC decided Kenya could not fulfil their obligations, and Christchurch will once again be the focal town as in 2002.

That year produced the only occasion an Asian country has failed to win or even reach a final since the inaugural tournament in 1998, when England won under Owais Shah's captaincy.

The current England squad have good players, including Leicestershire's Nathan Buck, and they will need to show character to overcome the disadvantange of playing out of season.

The value of training at Catterick camp, Manchester United, Cardiff sand dunes and Loughborough High Performance Centre in winter would hardly compare with practice under a hot sun in South Island.

Warm-up matches in Christchurch contained few pointers for the main event before England's opener against Hong Kong at Lincoln University on Saturday.

An eight-wicket demolition of Papua New Guinea at Elmwood Park turned out as expected, with Buck picking up a couple of wickets.

A heavy five-wicket defeat by New Zealand was a setback with little relevance apart from suggesting that the host nation had a team capable of beating anyone.

Buck took 1-27 off five overs as the hosts shot past England's 43-over total of 156-7 in only 30.2 overs.

Afghanistan, in England's group, were still struggling to adapt to life away from rolled mud when they suffered a seven-wicket defeat by Ireland at Redwood Park.

The Irish look much stronger than in 2008 in Malaysia when they lost every game. This time they can field key players with county contracts such the highly regarded Warwickshire seamer Shane Getkate, and the Middlesex duo Paul Stirling and wicketkeeper Stuart Poynter.

Andrew Balbirnie hit a century against the Afghans, so South Africa and Australia would be foolish to take Ireland lightly in Group D at Queenstown.

The Bert Sutcliffe Oval at Lincoln, named in memory of the dashing New Zealand batsman, has a pitch with English characteristics, offering bounce and sideways movement for seam bowlers.

Situated in the university campus about 10 miles outside the city, it is a splendid venue with a white wicket fence around the boundary surrounded by blue gums and poplars. The big drawback, as the head groundsman likes to mention, is that these are indigenous trees of Australia...

Here England will have to defeat champions India, having lost all four previous encounters over the years.

The 234-run defeat suffered by Moeen Ali's team in Colombo in 2006 remains the biggest thrashing of all time. So Azeem Rafiq's 2010 men have a blot on the history books to erase when they meet India in the final group match at Lincoln on January 21.

Provided England can see off Hong Kong and Afghanistan in the earlier games, they should qualify for the quarter-finals even if they lose the big match, but they might meet the Indians again in the semi-finals, again at Lincoln. This tournament might be all about India. It usually is.

In 2002, Australia, led by Cameron White, won the final at Lincoln with a seven-wicket victory over Hashim Amla's South Africa.

The good news was that India were eclipsed in the semi-finals; the bad news was that England under Nicky Peng suffered a shocking tournament, beating only Nepal and Papua New Guinea.

Ireland have an outside chance of progressing into the quarter-finals, with the presence of Stirling, a batsman good enough to have hit 30 off 26 balls for the senior team at No 3 against England at Belfast last summer.

Their venue, the Queenstown Events Centre, sits below the stunning backdrop of The Remarkables.

Many a fielder's attention has wandered while the gaze slides up to the sawtooth crags, and this is not far from those dark location shots used in Lord of the Rings.

Beautiful, but no excuse for a dropped catch. This tournament is more about individual development for the Irish.

In 2008, Ireland, with Stirling in his first tournament, lost to England, Bangladesh and Bermuda in Malaysia.

That was embarrassing, certainly the Bermuda part, though Bangladesh can be formidable at this age level, competing in Group D with Pakistan, West Indies and Papua New Guinea at Palmerston North over the water in North Island.

They are possible finalists, and England might concur after losing one-day series home and away in 2009.

Pakistan's opponents will breath a sigh of relief that the left-armer Mohammad Aamer, at 17 one of the fastest bowlers in the world, is on the Pakistan test tour of Australia, but they have to face leg-spinner Usman Qadir, son of the great Abdul.

This group has special interest for England as they will meet one of the two top sides if they qualify for the quarter-finals.

England, optimistic as ever, will have had two weeks of acclimatisation by the time they start the tournament against no-hopers Hong Kong.

Their next match two days later against proud qualifiers Afghanistan is a potential banana skin at the Queen Elizabeth II ground in the New Brighton sea-side suburb. If England lose against a side drawn mainly from refugee areas in Pakistan, the India match on January 21 becomes a battle for survival.

ENGLAND UNDER-19

Azeem Rafiq (Yorks, captain), Adam Ball (Kent), Michael Bates (Hants), Paul Best (Warwicks), Danny Briggs (Hants), Nathan Buck (Leics), Jos Buttler (Somerset), Chris Dent (Gloucs), Matthew Dunn (Surrey), Ateeq Javid (Warwicks), Jack Manuel (Worcs), David Payne (Gloucs), Joe Root (Yorks), Ben Stokes (Durham), James Vince (Hants).

Group A (Christchurch): India, England, Afghanistan, Hong Kong.

Group B (Queenstown): South Africa, Australia, Ireland, USA.

Group C (Christchurch): New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Canada.

Group D (Palmerston North): Pakistan, Bangladesh, West Indies, Papua New Guinea.

Article provided by Charles Randall. Charles is a journalist with 20 years of experience writing for the Daily Telegraph and other national newspapers.

* You can watch Nathan and England in action live tomorrow through rights holders ESPN, who are streaming games live on its website www.espnstar.com. Action is also on Sky Sports 2, from 9.30pm.