There is only six days to go before the 2024 ICC u.19 Cricket World Cup lights up South African shores from 19 January-11 February.

The 15th edition of the ICC u.19 Cricket World Cup will take place in South Africa for the third time in history, with previous editions in 1998 and 2020.

2024 promises to be the tournament with the highest media attention to date as this biennial tournament is highly regarded as the springboard for the next generation of international superstars.

41 matches as set to take place at five venues across South Africa. This includes the Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein, Buffalo Park in East London, Kimberley Oval in Kimberley, JB Marks Oval in Potchefstroom and Willowmoore Park in Benoni.

Current international superstars who represented their countries at an u.19 Cricket World Cup includes the likes of Kagiso Rabada, Aiden Markram, Wayne Parnell, Rilee Rossouw, Vernon Philander (South Africa), Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill (India), Kane Williamson (New Zealand), Steve Smith, and Josh Hazlewood (Australia) and so forth. The list goes on and on.

Hosts, South Africa, will look to win the World Cup for the first time in a decade and emulate the class of 2014, who to date has been the one and only South African side to win the tournament.

Potchefstroom will be the base for the u.19 Proteas, who play all their matches in group B at the J.B. Marks Oval. This includes matches against West Indies, England and Scotland. West Indies has won the tournament once in 2016, whilst England won back in 1998 also in South Africa.  SA will need to finish in the top 3 teams in the pool in order to qualify for the Super Six stages, where twelve sides will compete for semi-final spots.

South Africa are most likely to face either Sri Lanka, Australia, Zimbabwe or Namibia (Group C) in the Super Six stage. It is imperative for SA to finish on top of their pool in order to avoid playing the top teams in the other pools. They will also then extend their stay in Potch for the Super Six phase as the top team in pool B, will play their two Super Six games in Potch as well.

The top two teams from the Super Six group (BC) will face the top two teams from the other Super Six Group (AD) in the semi-finals at Willowmoore Park in Benoni. The final will also take place in Benoni on 11 February.

South Africa have a competitive squad of talented youngsters such as pace bowler, Kwena Maphaka, who has already played first class cricket for the Lions. Other stars to watch out for include the run-machines Lhuan-dre Pretorius, former Laerskool Mooirivier alumni, as well as Steve Stolk. Both were also included in the SA20 squads, which gives a fair indication on the amount of talent these youngsters have. Riley Norton, Dewan Marais and all-rounder, Juan James will also be some of the key players in the squad.

The tournament which began in 1988 has seen seven different winners with India, the defending champion, bagging five titles. Australia (3), Pakistan (2) and Bangladesh, South Africa, West Indies and England (1 each) have all lifted the trophy.

New Zealand and Sri Lanka are two great cricketing nations who are yet to lift the biggest u.19 cricket prize.

Interesting stats:

Most runs in a single tournament

Dewald Brevis (South Africa) – 2022

506 runs

Most wickets in a single tournament:

Enamul Haque (Bangladesh) – 2004

22 wickets