Junior High

The smart new kid on the block, India8217;s dashing opener Gaurav Dhiman, passes by, overhears, and flashes his usual naughty grin to quip, 8216;8216;We8217;ll do the same, Johnny.8217;8217;

The young boy has a big heart but is it big enough to be among the Men in Blue? Johnny, with his seat for future games reserved, answers the question. 8216;8216;This present bunch is much more talented than the one that won the under-19 World Cup in 2000.8217;8217;

Hitting the deck
THE talent that Johnny talks about is the kind that has dismissed teams like West Indies, last year8217;s runner-up, and England, once champions, as if they were from8212;to borrow a phrase from Sunil Gavaskar8212;Popatwadi.

One incident that8217;s already passing into legend takes off after India8217;s 234-run demolition of England in the semis. The India team8217;s computer analyst A Prasanna describes walking up to England coach Andy Pick and casually saying, 8216;8216;What a game!8217;8217; Pick, he says, looked at him with a poker face and replied, 8216;8216;What a shame.8217;8217;

Whatever be the outcome of today8217;s final, the Indians will fly out of Colombo with a hugely upbeat mindset. Indian coach Venkatesh Prasad hints at that, though he tempers his euphoria with 8216;not the destination but the journey8217; quote. 8216;8216;Results are important but not that much. It8217;s the process of learning that is vital. I can see every member of this squad playing first class cricket. The playing eleven should be regulars at zonal games and the Challenger Trophy while some of them can make it to the main team.8217;8217;

Corridor of certainty
PRASAD, as a policy, doesn8217;t believe in singling out names. Seek permission to meet the day8217;s star after every game, and his stock answer is: 8216;8216;Not one, I8217;ll send two.8217;8217; And mostly, it8217;s the Man of the Match and the day8217;s quiet performer, or even someone from the bench.

But it is clear from the scoresheets who, besides Dhiman, can be expected to do Johnny a favour: the tournament8217;s leading run-getter 349 runs from five games Cheteshwar Pujara; one-drop batsman Rohit Sharma; pacers V Yomahesh and Abu Nacheem Ahmed and leggie Piyush Chawla.

Starting with the last one, 17-year-old Chawla is already half-way to achieving the common target. He has travelled with the Indian team and that8217;s where he got the right to prefix 8216;Paaji8217; to Sachin Tendulkar and lay claim to the legacy of the googly, with which he bowled the Big Man in the Challenger Trophy early this cricketing year.

Confidence sits easy on Chawla as he talks about how he is a born leggie. 8216;8216;Even if I wanted to pass an apple to someone, I would flick it from the back of my hand. Also pebbles, marbles and of course the ball,8217;8217; says the youth who flew in to Colombo hours after taking five wickets to help Uttar Pradesh win the Ranji Trophy.

Suggest to him that this is a simpler assignment and he differs. 8216;8216;People have a lot of expectations from me and I have to live up to them. But I am mastering a back-spin ball during this tournament,8217;8217; he says.

Nine wickets from five games aren8217;t a lot but, considering the pacers8217; brilliant show, he has had few opportunities. The boy from Muzaffarpur8212;no, his lineage doesn8217;t go back to the famous Kanpur-Lucknow academy that has produced players like Kaif, Raina and R P Singh8212;says his family has never watched him bowl on the field but adds that they do switch on the television at home if his match is being telecast. In the days to come, the Chawla household is in for long hours in front of the telly.

Leading edge
IN contrast, Pujara8217;s father, a former Saurashtra Ranji player, has watched his son closely from day one. 8216;8216;He had a carpenter make a bat for me when I was just five,8217;8217; says Pujara. Post-Colombo it will be different; already there are feelers from agents wanting to put a logo on his bat.

But the boy who could be a marketing man8217;s delight is Dhiman from Bangalore. There isn8217;t a dull moment when he is around. With the World Cup final just two days away, Dhiman is busy swinging his bat, hitting some, missing some. Coach Prasad doesn8217;t say a word about his batting but he needs a different set of instructions. 8216;8216;Pick the ball with your hand and give it to the bowlers, don8217;t just tap it back,8217;8217; he says.

Batting over, Dhiman strips off his shirt and chats up the local net bowlers as he tries his hand at spin bowling. Prasad hears the ruckus and barks, 8216;8216;No fooling around.8217;8217; That8217;s all he can say to the boy with two Man of the Match awards, two opening century stands, 32 fours and four sixes.

Not far away is another opener, who can also bat in the middle-order: Borivali boy Rohit Sharma. He8217;s the brooding sort and many feel he8217;s a real star in the making. He is as solid as Dhiman and more dexterous than Pujara, besides being capable of producing the occasional offie.

He8217;s giving his first television interview. It all goes okay till the television reporter, desperate for a 8216;future star8217; story, prompts him: 8216;8216;Look into the camera and say, 8216;I want to be an all-rounder so I can make it to the senior team8217;.8217;8217;

The boy they call Mark Waugh for his lazy grace turns around to his mates and says in true tapori style, 8216;8216;Kya, bole8217;8217;.

New ball
PACE bowlers and roommates Yomahesh and Abu Nacheem Ahmed give a grin and share knowing glances. The smile has been hard to wipe off their faces since the semis, where they clocked in the 136-139 kmph range.

Talk to Yomahesh8217;s father, who is here for the final, and he replies distractedly, browsing through a set of papers as if they were his son8217;s SAT scores. In a way they are. The print-outs contain the analysis of Yomahesh8217;s performance and also the itinerary for India A and India under-22 tours. He knows just where his son is headed.

Guwahati boy Nacheem, meanwhile, is just happy to be here. His enthusiasm to return home has been peaking ever since he heard that the North East can8217;t get over the fact that a boy from the hills is scaling new heights.

Reverse sweep?
IF Mt Everest is what these few aspire to climb, K2 seems to be within the range of all the 15 in Colombo. Nor will it be a freak one-off. Easy series wins at home against Australia and England and then the cakewalk at the Afro-Asian games meant India were the firm favourites in Colombo. According to the chairman of junior selectors Praveen Amre, whose database includes the names of about 3,000 young cricketers, 8216;8216;It took us about two minutes to finalise the squad.8217;8217;

But lest we get carried away by India winning the under-19 World Cup or finishing second and then start counting the days to the big leap, here8217;s what Jimmy Adams, former West Indian captain and the under-19 team manager here, has to say: 8216;8216;These guys should go back to domestic cricket after this. Rule first class cricket and than think of playing for the senior side.8217;8217;

Johnny wouldn8217;t agree to that and, by the way, he hasn8217;t come lately.