1987-88 (Australia)

Winners: Australia

The inaugural Under-19 World Cup — titled Youth World Cup — was the bra-inchild of the Australian board as part of the country’s bicentenary celebrations. The seven Test-playing nations plus an ICC Associates XI took part in a full round-robin format. Australia lost only one match, their final round-robin game against Pakistan by which time they had qualified for the semis. They went on to beat Pakistan by five wickets in the final, thanks to an unbeaten hundred from Brett Williams. England and West Indies made up the last four, but India was the real disappointment. After opening with a good win against England, they suffered defeats in four matches to be knocked out early.

1997-98 (South Africa)

Winners: England

England was the unexpected winners of the Under-19 World Cup in South Africa. The only previous tournament of its kind was held 10 years earlier and the ICC announced that it was to be a biennial event henceforth.

Support for many of the matches was good, largely because of the efforts of the various provincial unions. India’s game against Pakistan attracted a crowd of more than 10,000 and the final between England and New Zealand was watched by about 6,000. In addition to the nine Test-playing nations, there were teams from Bangladesh, Kenya and Scotland, the three countries who had qualified for the adult World Cup in 1999, plus Ireland, Denmark, Namibia and Papua New Guinea.

The teams were divided into four pools and

the top two sides from each progressed to two Super League pools, whose winners advanced to the final. New Zealand joined England in the final, where a century from England’s Stephen Peters won the day.

In order to give everyone a decent amount of cricket, the non-qualifiers competed in a Plate League, won by Bangladesh, who beat West Indies in the final.

With inputs from www.cricinfo.com