LONDON, Nov 26 (APP)-The
English cricket squad announced Thursday for the ICC Under-19 World Cup taking
place in New Zealand from January 16 to 30 next year includes two players of
Pakistani-origin.They are Ateeq Javid of Warwickshire and Azeem Rafiq of
Yorkshire.Other members are Michael Bates, Paul Best, Danny Briggs, Nathan Buck,
Jos Buttler, Chris Dent, Matthew Dunn, Calum Haggett, Jack Manuel, David Payne,
Joe Root, Ben Stokes ,James Vince.
The bi-annual tournament
involves 16 teams with England facing Afghanistan , Hong Kong and India in the
group stages.
The captain of the team will be
announced after England U19 coach Mark Robinson (Professional Cricket Manager
for Sussex ) who has been seconded to the role for the duration of the
tournament will be spending time with the squad over the next four weeks getting
to know the players before selecting a captain.
The 15 players will undergo an
intense period of training in the run up to the tournament including fitness and
skill work at the National Cricket Performance Centre in Loughborough, fielding
and team building in Cardiff , leadership challenges at the army base at
Catterick, Yorkshire , and fitness and fielding at Manchester United’s training
ground at Carrington.
The squad will leave on 1st
January for Wellington where they will spend a week acclimatising before
reporting to Christchurch for the start of the World Cup.
England will play two warm up
matches against Papua New Guinea U19 on January 11 and New Zealand U19 the
following day.
England’s first match in the
group stages will be against Hong Kong on January 16 followed by Afghanistan on
January 18 and current U19 World Cup holders India on January 20 . The top two
teams in each group will progress to the quarter finals.
England’s best result at the
ICC U19 World Cup was in 1998 when they defeated New Zealand to win the
tournament.
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