Greg Chappell excited by Australia Under-19 talent

Greg Chappell expressed his pleasure with the Australian talent on display so far at the Under-19 World Cup. Australia defeated England, Nepal and Ireland to top Group A with a perfect record.

Ahead of Sunday's quarter-final against Bangladesh in Townsville, Chappell, Australia's National Talent Manager, declared that he was impressed with the way captain Will Bosisto's side have started the tournament. "I think it has been a pretty good performance," said Chappell. "Obviously the big game was the game against England [Australia won by six wickets]. That was a really important game and I thought the guys played really well. We've done what we have had to do in the other games.

"We have had an opportunity to give all of the squad a game so now everyone has played. It has actually worked out really well for us and we have just got to make sure we are ready to go on Sunday."

The chance to rotate the squad came about from the decisions made by Stuart Law, the coach of the team, and also several injuries, which have tested the stocks of Australian cricket. "If you think about it, probably our three standout bowlers in this group 12 months ago were (Patrick) Cummins, (Billy) Stanlake and (James) Muirhead," pointed out Chappell. "Two of them are injured and Cummins has moved up to the next level. We have had to dig deeper into the reserves and we are still producing guys who can perform. That's a great credit to the individuals but it's also a good sign for our system that we have got a bit of depth."

Alex Gregory, the 17-year-old medium pacer, caught the eye particularly, returning overall figures of 5 for 25 from his two matches against Nepal and Ireland. "He is a very likely prospect considering he has got another Under-19 World Cup he could play in," said Chappell. "The great thing about him was that he learnt from his experience, he has worked on some areas that he realised he had to work on and he has come back a very, very improved young cricketer. I'm quite excited about his potential."

Chappell also said that Australia, if they can stay the course, had the ability to win the tournament. "The rest of the matches are going to be pretty hotly contested. I think it's really well set up and there's any number of teams I think that could win the World Cup," said Chappell. "I think if we can play as well as we are capable then there's no reason why we can't win it."