Wakely to lead England at ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup

Alex Wakely will lead England at their ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup campaign in February. The tournament will be played in Malaysia from 17 February to 2 March.

Northamptonshire's Wakely takes the reins for the first time, with Rory Hamilton-Brown now too old, and he will captain a 14-man squad, nine of whom have first-class experience. Billy Godleman had a particularly good 2007, with his maiden first-class century for Middlesex this season and 149 from 150 balls to help England Under-19 beat the touring Pakistan Under-19 side at Leicester. The World Cup holders Pakistan, though, won the one-dayers 3-1.

The side reached the semi-finals of the last competition in Sri Lanka last year, where they fell away to India in a humiliating 234-run defeat.

Sixteen nations will compete in an initial group stage where participating teams are split into four groups of four. Each side will play against the other three teams in their group with the top two from each of the four groups progressing to the sudden death Super League quarter-final matches. The winning teams from the Super League will progress to the semi-finals and the subsequent winners to the finals.

The bottom two sides from each of the initial four groups will play in a sudden-death plate competition which will follow the same format as the Super League.

Squad: Alex Wakely (capt), Ben Brown (wk), Liam Dawson, Steven Finn, Billy Godleman, James Harris, James Lee, Stuart Meaker, Sam Northeast, Daniel Redfern, James Taylor, Tom Westley, Chris Woakes, Greg Wood (wk).