Guest Writer - Shankar's Views

Since we are in the midst of the cricket season and India has unearthed some fine young players coming through the ranks, I wanted to go back in time and check out some of the players who have come up through the cricket system in various countries. I went back to the U-19 World Cup held in 1988 in Australia which was won by Australia.

India was led by M.Senthilnathan and members of the team included Ajay Jadeja, Pravin Amre, Nayan Mongia,Venkatapathy Raju, Hirwani etc. The opponents were quite formidable and included Atherton, Ramprakash, Nasser Hussain, Chris Lewis etc for England, Saeed Anwar, Inzamam, Basit Ali, Mushtaq Ahmed for Pakistan, Stuart Law, Alan Mullally for Australia, Lara, Jimmy Adams, Ridley Jacobs etc for WI and Kaluwitharana, Jayasuriya etc for Sri Lanka. It's interesting to see that so many cricketers have been a product of the system and have gone on to accomplish a tremendous international career.

However, here is a little cricket trivia that might amuse you. This player Rajitha Amunugama represented Sri Lanka U-19 in that world cup. He did not have an international career that can be spoken about but did have a decent domestic career. So, what's interesting about him then?

He has the longest name among any first class cricketer ever!! Check this out...

Shankar
ps: Shankar Nagarajan, [a good friend mine] would be writing his views about cricket via my Blog [whenever he feels like] :)