Big teams start well in under-19 World Cup

There were no surprises on the first day of the Under-19 World Cup in Malaysia today. England, the champions ten years ago, beat Ireland with ease, bowling them out for 109 and chasing the target in 16 overs. Steven Finn, with three for 21, was man of the match and his Middlesex team-mate, Billy Godleman, showed continued promise alongside James Taylor, newly signed by Leicestershire. Click here to read a preview of this year's tournament and to see what happened to that victorious England side of 1998.

Sadly, only three of them have so far played Test cricket (with Robert Key the most successful) and seven of the squad have left the first-class game altogether. Not every promising young player develops into a Sachin Tendulkar or Ricky Ponting, of course, but England's lost generation of world champions is disappointing.

Compare some of the names who played against them in that tournament ten years ago. New Zealand, who England beat in the final, had Kyle Mills, James Franklin, Lou Vincent and Hamish Marshall; India had Mohammad Kaif, Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag; Pakistan had Abdul Razzaq and Shoaib Malik; West Indies had Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Daren Ganga; and Sri Lanka had Prasanna Jayawardena, Dilhara Fernando and Chamara Silva. Yet the Australia side in 1998 contained no future world-beaters (or none that have yet emerged). James Hopes and Marcus North were the biggest names, which shows how a generation has been missed by the longevity of Australia's recent players.

Elsewhere today, India started with a 195-run win against Papua New Guinea; Pakistan, the defending champions, bowled out Malaysia for 75 and won by eight wickets and Australia clocked up 312 against Namibia, with Michael Hill, the Australia captain, making the tournament's first hundred and scoring 12 sixes in the process. Australia won by 149 runs.