Meet the all-rounder, new and improved

• New Zealand go from 69 for 5 to 151 for 6 against England thanks to new ball bowler Greg Morgan’s 27. Morgan follows up with figures of 6-1-17-1 in the same game.

•Pakistan’s opening pair of Ahmed Shehzad and Umar Akmal, both spinners, had economy rates hovering around 3 in Pakistan’s quarter-final win against Australia.

•India have taken the field with as many as nine all-rounders in their playing XI for all the games here. Make that 10, when you consider that the wicket-keeper, Shreevats Goswami, is also the opener.

Even a cursory glance at this World Cup’s scoreboards points towards how the profile of the young cricketer has changed over the years. It’s no longer enough to just bat or bowl. International cricket today almost demands players who bat and bowl, besides being good fielders.

With an overwhelming presence of multi-dimensional cricketers in the Under-19 World Cup’s class of 2008, chances are that in years to come, the ‘all-rounder’ tag might become redundant. Since about 80 per cent of the players aren’t specialists of the purest form, a total re-think might be needed before using the term all-rounder in the future.

Ask South Africa’s coach Ray Jennings about this trend and he adds one more dimension to the term all-rounder. “I started to compile my squad some 18 months ago by identifying three-in-one cricketers. Guys who can bowl, bat and field. At the same time, I wanted these cricketers to be mentally tough as well.

“That’s been my way of putting sides together. Bradley Barns is batting at No 11 in my team right now but I could put him at No 5. Our No 10 bats at No 3 for his school side,” he says.

SA’s delight

In the South Africa vs Bangladesh quarter-final, one cricketer actually fitted Jennings’s seemingly impossible criteria for an all-rounder to the T. South Africa skipper Wayne Parnell scored 57 runs and had dream figures of 5-0-8-6. He had a sore throat, stuffy nose and was running a temperature — so that checks the mental toughness box as well. Since the game got over in 13 overs, he didn’t get a chance to display his fielding prowess.

New Zealand coach Dipak Patel too isn’t merely focused on the batting and bowling of his team. “When we all gathered for our pre-World Cup camp, we decided that we will be the best fielding side in the world. In the game’s shorter version, it is important for players to be multi-dimensional. With cricket being so competitive, no areas can be neglected any longer,” he says.

Though he hasn’t done well in the present tournament, England all-rounder James Harris too is a player that coaches would love to have in their sides. At 17, he has been the youngest bowler to take 10 wickets in a county championship game and could have been the youngest centurion as well. He missed the double when he was stranded at 87 not out.

Academy talk

Harris says that the reason for him being comfortable with both bat and ball is his grooming at the academy. “These days the emphasis is on all aspects of the game,” he says.

India, for once, haven’t been left behind. Chairman of India’s junior selection committee, Sanjeev Sharma, is aware of the fact that one-dimensional cricketers are a thing of the past.

“When we selected the team for the World Cup, we wanted the team to have several options. There are a number of batsmen who can bowl, so we bat pretty deep. This is the biggest feature of this team,” says the former all-rounder — of the conventional kind, that is.