U-19 World Cup: VVS Laxman lauds BCCI and its structure after India's fifth triumph

U-19 World Cup title triumph, National Cricket Academy (NCA) head VVS Laxman lauded the BCCI for running a world-class youth structure and organising innumerable, competitive age-group tournaments. Having battled a COVID-19 outbreak in their camp which nearly derailed their campaign, India beat England by four wickets in the final of this edition to extend their dominance in the age-group showpiece. "I think the BCCI has to be complemented. The number of matches and tournaments each age group level gets to play, whether U-16, U-19 or U-23... unfortunately due to COVID-19 they didn't get to play any tournament and that's why I think this tournament win is very special," Laxman said after the victory.

Delighted with the victory, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly announced a cash award for the entire team. "Congratulations to the under 19 team and the support staff and the selectors for winning the world cup in such a magnificent way ..The cash prize announced by us of 40 lakhs is a small token of appreciation but their efforts are beyond value .. magnificent stuff..," Ganguly tweeted.

Laxman, a teammate of former India captain Ganguly, has accompanied the team to the West indies for the tournament.

"Firstly huge congratulations to the selection committee. It was a new selection committee and quite challenging for them to identify this group. After that, the coaching staff with Hrishikesh (Kanitkar) as the head coach, Sai Raj, Munish, and all the support staff.

"The way they got this group together, they worked really hard, won the Asia Cup and the preparation for this World Cup was fantastic. "But in the middle of this tournament, we all know what happened to the boys. To test positive (for COVID-19) but show the kind of