India U-19 cricketers impress Omar Henry

Mumbai lad Yashasvi Jaiswal

Omar Henry, the first non-white cricketer to don South African Test colours, who has spent a lifetime in coaching youngsters, reckons India are, "leaders when it comes to producing quality players."

Cape Town-based Henry, 68, on Sunday was glued to his television set and watched India and Bangladesh stretch every sinew for honours in the U-19 World Cup final which eventually went Bangladesh's way.

"I am very passionate about looking after the game and making sure the feeder system is proper, so I must compliment India for the way they have gone about producing players.

"That left hander [referring to the Yashasvi Jaiswal] is a class apart. He is a compact player and is one guy who we are going to hear a lot about in the future. He was so consistent in this tournament," Henry told mid-day on Monday, a day after Bangladesh achieved their maiden World Cup triumph by three wickets via the Duckworth-Lewis method.

Apart from Jaiswal, Henry was impressed with left-arm pacer Sushant Mishra and leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi: "Mishra is a strong kid, has a big heart and bowled aggressively [7-0-25-2]. I think the captain should have allowed him to complete his quota of 10 overs. With regard to Bishnoi, the former left-arm spinner, who played against India in the 1992-93 series, remarked: "He is competitive, capable and has great control; he's in your face…which I like."

Omar Henry

The final was not played in the best of spirits and viewers couldn't help notice the exchange of verbals. Henry didn't have a problem with it except what happened after the match when some players got physical. "I am not condoning what they did [post match] but emotions got the better of them. After all, they were the underdogs. The Bangladesh players were at the boundary so there was a build-up to it. For me, it was a great match, it was a see-saw battle and many a time you didn't know who was on top."

On Tuesday, Henry heard about the ICC's action on five players across both teams and commented: "An early lesson to be learned for the players. There is no need to behave out of order when two teams playing such competitive and passionate cricket. It was still a very good game to watch."

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