2018 Under-19 Cricket World Cup

The 2018 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup was an international limited-overs cricket tournament held in New Zealand from 13 January to 3 February 2018. It was the twelfth edition of the Under-19 Cricket World Cup, and the third to be held in New Zealand after the 2002 and the 2010 events. New Zealand became the first country to host the event thrice. The opening ceremony took place on 7 January 2018. The West Indies were the defending champions. However, they failed to defend their title, after losing their first two group fixtures.

Following the group stage fixtures, Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa had all qualified for the Super League quarter-final stage of the tournament. The other eight teams moved to the Plate League to determine their final placements in the competition. Sri Lanka went on to win the Plate League, giving them a final position of ninth overall in the tournament.

In the first Super League semi-final, Australia beat Afghanistan by 6 wickets to progress to the final. In the second semi-final, India beat Pakistan by 203 runs to advance into the final. In the third-place playoff, no play was possible due to rain and a wet outfield. Pakistan therefore finished in third place, as they finished their group ahead of Afghanistan on net run rate. In the final, India defeated Australia by 8 wickets to win their fourth Under-19 World Cup title.

Qualification
The ten full members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), as of 2016, qualified automatically for the tournament. Namibia, which placed seventh at the 2016 World Cup, also qualified automatically as the highest ranked associate member. The other five places in the tournament were awarded to the winners of the five regional under-19 tournaments.

Umpires
On 3 January 2018, the ICC appointed the officials for the tournament. Along with the seventeen umpires, Jeff Crowe, Dev Govindjee, David Jukes and Graeme Labrooy were also named as the match referees.


 * Rob Bailey
 * Sourav Ramos Chouhan
 * Anil Chaudhary
 * Nigel Duguid
 * Shaun George
 * Shaun Haig


 * Mark Hawthorne
 * Ranmore Martinesz
 * C. K. Nandan
 * David Odhiambo
 * Buddhi Pradhan
 * Ian Ramage


 * Ahsan Raza
 * Shozab Raza
 * Tim Robinson
 * Langton Rusere
 * Paul Wilson

Squads
Each team selected a 15-man squad for the tournament. Any players born on or after 1 September 1998 were eligible to be selected for the competition.

Group stage
The fixtures for the tournament were confirmed by the ICC on 17 August 2017.