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If you thought the first week of the Under-19 World Cup was going to be boring, think again. There’s a very good chance that by Friday night, both the winner and runner-up of the 2002 competition might be finished for 2004.

Sixteen games in the first four days of competition, fourteen predictable results. Some of them quite comprehensive. Then on Wednesday, Nepal upset South Africa’s applecart, beating the 2002 finalists by one wicket with two balls to spare after earlier in the day having them on the ropes at 62 for 7.

It wasn’t Nepal’s first major upset at this level. In 2002 in New Zealand they defeated Pakistan by 30 runs, although it wasn’t enough to upset their opponents’ march into the second round.

Here, South Africa are in trouble. Presuming that Nepal beats Uganda later today, South Africa must defeat England on Friday and let a three-way tie on four points be sorted out by net run-rate.

The top two teams from each group qualify for the superleague, and at the moment it looks like Nepal might be joining England and the representatives from Group B.

But if South Africa’s applecart has been upset, Australia’s has had its wheels pulled off and all the fruit rolled down the hill. They didn’t just lose to Zimbabwe at the Bogra District Stadium on Wednesday - they were thrashed. Australia batted first and were bowled out for 73 in nineteen overs. Zimbabwe, despite losing both openers without scoring, completed a seven-wicket win with 32.5 overs to spare.

Remember two names from that Zimbabwean team: Tinashe Panyangara, and Elton Chigumbra. Seventeen year-old Panyangara took 6/31 from nine overs with his right-arm pace, while sixteen year-old Chigumbra, another right-arm seamer, took 4/17 from five overs.

Zimbabwe gave Sri Lanka a tough time on Sunday before losing by two wickets. Australia, who beat Canada by four wickets on Monday, have to beat Sri Lanka on Friday if they’re going to make it through to the second round. Even Canada beating Zimbabwe today won’t save Australia if they can’t win that one, and it will still come down to net run-rate if Australia and Zimbabwe both win.

In 2002, Australia beat South Africa by seven wickets to win the final of the ICC U19 World Cup. This time, it could well be that the two teams will be facing off at some stage in the Plate Championship (for the eight teams eliminated after the first round).

Group D is settled already, with Ireland and Papua New Guinea now unable to prevent Pakistan and the West Indies from going through to the superleague. The West Indies had a scare on Monday when Ireland came within six runs of victory, but they made amends with a thumping 152-run win over Papua New Guinea yesterday. PNG have not had a happy time of this tournament so far, even allowing for their minnow status, having being dismissed for 60 by Pakistan on Sunday.

It’s worth noting that Uganda (who were bowled out for 46 by England on Tuesday) and Papua New Guinea both qualified for this World Cup ahead of Kenya - a fact that is bound to hurt the Kenyan push for ICC full membership status.

Group C is the glamour group of the first round. Tournament favourites India, whose matches are the only ones being televised in the first week of competition, look safe for a superleague spot after a massive win over Scotland on Monday and then a 69-run victory over New Zealand yesterday. Host nation Bangladesh will only have a chance of advancing if they can overcome their neighbours at Bangabandhu National Stadium on Friday. New Zealand should have no trouble with Scotland today, and that should be enough to see them through to the superleague round.

So at this stage, I am picking the final eight as: Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe from Group A, England and Nepal from Group B, India and New Zealand from Group C, and Pakistan and the West Indies from Group D.

And won’t they love that in Kathmandu.

Cricket’s global community expanded just a little further on Friday February 6 when the Netherlands Antilles hosted its first first-class cricket match. The Leeward Islands played host to the Windwards in their Carib Beer Series match at the Carib Lumber Ground, Philipsburg, Sint Maarten. The Netherlands Antilles is now the 35th country to host first-class cricket.

The island of St Marten/St Maarten is split in two entities: the north (St Marten) is part of the French overseas department of Guadeloupe, while the south (St Maarten) is part of the Netherlands Antilles. St Maarten is also an associate member of the Leeward Islands Cricket Association and has fielded representative teams in tournaments within the Leewards.

The match itself finished in a draw on Monday afternoon. The Leewards made 378 for 9 declared in their first innings, Windward Islands replying with 435. Leeward Islands were 153 for 6 in their second innings when the match came to an end.

Devon Smith, who played for the West Indies in 2003, goes down in history as the first first-class centurion on Netherlands Antilles soil, scoring 153 in the Windwards innings. Windwards captain Rawl Lewis, who has a Test career bowling average of 318, comes away with the best innings (4/82) and match (7/124) bowling at the ground thus far, added to his 82 when he batted.

The LICA has spread its Carib Beer Series home games around this season, with none planned for their home base in Antigua. Having already played at Anguilla and Nevis, they head to St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands later this week to play Barbados. They have added both the US and British Virgin Islands to their itinerary in recent years.

For the record, these are the 35 countries, as they exist today, which have hosted first-class cricket matches at one time or another, in alphabetical order. Fourteen of them are within the West Indies.

Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Montserrat, Myanmar, Namibia, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, St Kitts Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America, US Virgin Islands, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe departs from the VB Series with their worst record in three outings in the Australian triangular. At least they managed one win in both 1994-95 and 2000-01. This time, a washout at the MCG was the best they could muster.

The sad thing is that Zimbabwe’s cricket team is not improving. The upper order batting collapsed on a regular basis and the bowlers suffered some extraordinary punishment at times, most notably at the hands of Adam Gilchrist in Hobart. Only Heath Streak, Stuart Carlisle, Grant Fowler and Sean Ervine can really hold their heads up as players of genuine international calibre.

There is no doubt that the Zimbabwe Cricket Union is placing a long-term investment into development and in addressing the historical racial imbalances within the sport in their country. In Zimbabwe’s last VB Series game, against India at the WACA on Tuesday, they fielded five non-white players in their eleven - Tatenda Taibu, Vusi Sibanda, Stuart Matsekinyeri, Blessing Mahwire and Dion Ebrahim.

While the ZCU has denied the existence of any racial quotas in their selection policy, there’s a definite leaning towards “affirmative action” and that is a good thing. It probably will not be all that long before Zimbabwe regularly fields teams on a regular basis in which the majority of players are black. It remains a matter that selectors persist only with players of quality in the national team.

Regardless of affirmative action or quotas, the Zimbabwean team in Australia was still without question the best available. The players who missed the trip played for Zimbabwe A against Namibia last month. Trevor Gripper, whose batting record in ODIs is poor, was their captain, and the other discarded internationals in the A team’s ranks included Gary Brent, Gavin Ewing, Charles Coventry Jr, Douglas Marillier and Hamilton Masakadza. Marillier has fallen from favour since his dramatic match-winning half-century at Faridabad in 2002, while Masakadza, a Test centurion on debut at seventeen in 2001, has had injury problems.

There has, of course, been a whole raft of talented players leave the game and/or leave the country over the past couple of years - Murray Goodwin, Neil Johnson and Andy Flower are just the tip of the iceberg. While Henry Olonga has fled to the UK and pursued a singing career, Brighton Watambwa has moved to the US, whom he will be representing in the ICC Six Nations Challenge in the UAE later this month. Departures whose cause can all be traced back, in one way or another, to Robert Mugabe’s gross mismanagement of his country.

As for the question of who Zimbabwe will be playing against, the ECB has taken the correct course of action and decided to seek advice from the ICC executive board, when it meets in Auckland next month. In Australia there seems to be no threat of political intervention over their May tour of Zimbabwe, with prime minister John Howard effectively washing his hands of the issue, saying repeatedly that it was a matter solely for Cricket Australia to decide.

Bangladesh’s tour begins next week, and the Greek Davis Cup team is in Harare playing Zimbabwe this weekend as well.