A hearty congratulations to the India Under-19 team on winning the ICC Under-19 World Cup and that too in such an emphatic manner. The margin of wins shows that they were by far the best team in the tournament, well ahead of the rest. The best part was that in every match some player or the other put his hand up and helped the team coast to an easy win.There is no doubt that the guiding hand of Rahul Dravid and the support staff played a huge role but the BCCI also deserves kudos for the way it has been organising junior cricket over the years. Having travelled and seen the game at different levels in various countries it can be said without the slightest hesitation that no other country affords the opportunities and exposure to junior cricketers as the BCCI does with its various age group tournaments.When Will Sutherland knocked back the off-stump of the India skipper Prithvi Shaw the TV cameras quickly panned to his father James Sutherland the CEO of Cricket Australia. He is of course lucky that he is not in India else he would have had to resign for some convoluted conflict of interest that Indian cricket is getting known for.Be that as it may, the senior cricket team is doing a terrific job in ensuring the missed opportunities of the test series are not repeated in the oneday series. On pitches where there has been not a blade of grass the Indian spinners have bowled magically to weave a web around the leaden footed Proteas batsmen.The Proteas selectors sprang a surprise in naming a two-ODI old Aiden Markram as the stand in skipper for the series after Du Plessis’ injury. Every country has its fixed notions of the attributes their cricket skipper should have and so maybe the Proteas believe he is the man for the future. In India if you speak good English you have a better chance of becoming the captain. PMG/ESP