Canada’s Nitish becomes youngest to play in cricket World Cup

NAGPUR - Canada’s opening batsman Nitish Kumar became the youngest player to play in the World Cup as he made his international debut against Zimbabwe here Monday.

The batsman took to the field at the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) Stadium in Jamtha at just 16 years 283 days and broke the record of Bangladesh’s Talha Jubair, who played against the West Indies in 2003 at 17 years, 70 days.

Kumar, however, did little to impress as he scored just one off 10 balls and could not prevent his team from being humiliated by 175 runs.

Kumar opened the batting with John Davison, who at 40, is the oldest player in the tournament. Davison used to play club cricket with Kumar’s father and first saw the teenager bat at just six years old.

Canada captain Ashish Bagai said that Kumar still has a long way to go.

“He’s obviously shown a bit of talent but there’s a long way to go in his development. Saying that, probably the reason he was in was that other people in the team were not performing,” said Bagai.

“He got his opportunity and he didn’t take it, but there’s a bit of talent there so hopefully we’ll persist with that through the years.”