10 Cricketers who led both U19 and national teams

3. Lee Germon (New Zealand) – 1989 Youth World Cup:

Lee Germon led New Zealand in the 1989 World Cup with very little success. As a skipper, all he could manage was two wins in 7 games. He personally also had a terrible time scoring just 80 runs. However, despite the mediocre show, the cricket administration always had faith in the man.

After the World Cup, he progressed and became the captain of his provincial side Canterbury. After a few years of toiling at the domestic level, he made his Test debut for New Zealand in 1995 and was immediately given the leadership role. The decision to give him the responsibility came after the administrative shake-up following the national team’s poor performance in 1994/95.

New coach (Glenn Turner) wanted a new captain and turned to Germon. It was his leadership experience at the provincial and U19 level and the ability to maintain discipline both on and off the field that led to his appointment despite no Test experience. Unfortunately, his record wasn’t great in both Test and ODI format. He led the Kiwis in 12 Test and could manage only one win and lost 5 games while ending six of the matches as drawn games. In the ODIs, he had a slightly better record winning 15 matches out of the 36 matches while losing 19.