While the Pakistan team has performed rather poorly in recent years their U19 counterparts have thrived. Over a period of four years the U19s have won two world cups and reached the semifinal in the third. The senior team has in contrast been up and down (mostly down). So the usual complaint about not producing enough talent at the grass root level because of lack of facilities seems hollow. The Australian U19 by comparison has done nothing significant yet their senior counterparts are still hanging on to the number one spot, though barely. Is it that U19 cricket holds much more importance in the subcontinent than it does in Australia? Is it that in recent years there has been more talent in the subcontinent? Or is it that Australians do a much better task of grooming the final product? The next few years will answer this. If more talent is emerging at the moment in the subcontinent then in the next few years their results should improve drastically while Australia should see a down turn.
Even if one looks at the Pakistan A team they meted out a 3-0 defeat to Australia A in 2006 and that team included Jacque, Rogers, DJ Hussey, White, Hopes most of whom are now making their way in international cricket. All this of course relates to the limited overs game. Within these successes the danger signs have also been explicit. The U19s won solely due to their bowling. The batting crossed the two hundred mark rarely. In the senior version of the game batting takes on more import than the bowling. That is the nature of the game. This disturbing trend was also present in the Pakistan A team. Though they won the List A games handily against Australia A they fared rather poorly in the unofficial tests primarily due to their batting. So it seems Pakistan's results may remain mixed in the shorter version of the game in the next few years and the nose dive may continue in the tests. It seems they will produce their best results in Twenty20 cricket.
Australia's stock in limited overs cricket seems to be on the decline and in the next few years they will not be as dominant as they have been in the past decade: Many players have retired and they are in the rebuilding phase now but it is doubtful that the newcomers have the potential of their predecessors. India seems best placed to take on the top spot in the next few years. Fast bowlers, their usual weakness, are this time around not as weak. With the advent of IPL a lot more youngsters will stay with cricket than may have in the past. Now that cricket has become a real profession in India youngsters will prepare for it as they do for any other profession content in the knowledge that they will be able to make a decent living even if they do not reach the very top of their profession. Parents too would be more inclined to accept it as a legitimate profession.
South Africa's policy of including a certain number of black players to achieve integration seems a little iffy but their U19s did well and the senior team has consistently been the second best ODI team occasionally piping Australia for the top spot. So it would seem that they will remain in contention.
