This is just the beginning

No one among the Bangladesh Under-19 team scored a fifty or took a number of wickets in the Under-19 World Cup final on Sunday, a day that will be etched in the nation's sporting history—the first time that Bangladeshis could call themselves world champions.

A lack of star power has served the teenage champions well, and could be the main reason behind their success. For a country that creates idols and demigods of cricketers after even minor successes, that feature could be one from which to take a lesson.

The players themselves have said that there are no stars in the team. This is in stark contrast to the senior cricket team, who have never even played a World Cup semifinal and finished eighth in the 2019 World Cup in England. While superstars can provide magical performances, their failures can be crippling for the team, as has been the case when the likes of Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim or Tamim Iqbal do not fire.

In that respect, the win against India Under-19 on Sunday was especially pleasing to a nation accustomed to seeing implosions from winning situations from the senior side, most often against India.

Most will admit that they thought the U-19s were as good as lost when they fell to 64 for four and then 102 for six while chasing 178. But the players themselves, not least skipper Akbar Ali who eventually took the team home, would have known that all was not lost, because there were performers throughout the side who were used to stepping up.

There is another related lesson. The team reached this stage after the same group of players had played together over the last two years. They were persisted with and over time they all knew their roles, and learned to trust each other. That persistence and long-term vision is conspicuous in its absence in the national team's management.

"This is just the beginning," Akbar said after the seminal triumph.

There have been successes before, which have sadly faded due to subsequent failures. After arguably the greatest success, it remains to be seen if we can finally learn from the teen titans.