5 ICC U-19 World Cup captains who went on to become star players 

Brian Lara

Lara led the Caribbean side in the inaugural U-19 World Cup in 1988.

Brian Lara is one of the best examples of a young talent making it big at the highest level. Undoubtedly one of the best batsmen of all time, Lara was the skipper of West Indies in the 1988 U-19 World Cup (named Youth World Cup then). His team failed to get past Pakistan in the semi-final. The skipper could not impress much with the bat in the tournament. Nevertheless, his free-flowing shots and the habit of notching up big scores in domestic cricket ensured him a national call-up.

Lara made his ODI and Test debuts two years after the Youth World Cup. It did not take him long to prove that he was different from the rest. It was in 1994 that he made 375 in a Test match against England, and surpassed Gary Sobbers's record of 365 as the highest Test score by an individual. But his most memorable knock remains 400* that he scored, coincidentally against the same opposition and at the same venue. That remains to date the highest score by an individual in Tests. In a career spanning seventeen years, Lara accumulated over 22000 runs.