With U-19 ICC Cricket World Cup 2018 inching closer, International Cricket Council (ICC) today have announced New Zealand Corey Anderson as the event ambassador for the U-19 ICC Cricket World Cup which will some future stars from all parts of the world in action.
Corey Anderson who played this tournament for New Zealand earlier in 2008 and 2010 sounded delighted after hearing the news. He said, “It is extremely exciting to be involved again in the U19 World Cup. I played two of them – it is the first stepping stone to playing international cricket. You go from playing domestic cricket to playing international cricket – it’s a big step but it’s a step that is necessary. To have it in our backyard is great. We are going to see players who people may not know now but who in the years to come will become household names. In 2010, it was my first snippet of playing international cricket at home.”
Anderson, who has been a regular feature for New Zealand side across all the three formats since his debut in 2012 have score 324 runs in ten matches with the help of four half-centuries across the two u-19 tournaments he featured.
ICC Head of Events, Chris Tetley after declaring the ambassador’s name said, “Having Corey on board is ideal because he is a player who has come through this very system and hails from New Zealand. The ICC U19 World Cup is an extremely important event for us and our investment in it has been proven worthy time and again with so many top players first catching the world’s attention here.”
The top 10 test playing nations (before the inclusion of Afghanistan and Ireland) along with Namibia who was the best finishing non-test playing side in an event in Bangladesh in 2016 will feature automatically in the tournament. The 11 teams have been joined by five regional qualifiers – Kenya (Africa), Canada (Americas), Papua New Guinea (East Asia Pacific), Afghanistan (Asia) and Ireland (Europe).
This is the 12th edition of the tournament which will take place in New Zealand from January 13 to 3rd February across four cities. Earlier Australia and India have won this tournament thrice and Pakistan has won it twice whereas West Indies, South Africa, and England have won it once each.
