South Africa will start their defence of the u19 Cricket World Cup on 27 January 2016 against hosts Bangladesh in Chittagong.

South Africa beat Pakistan by six wickets in the final in 2014 which was held in Dubai. It was the tournament that put young fast bowler Kagiso Rabada on the map who has since gone on to play T20, ODI and Test cricket for the Proteas.

The 2016 edition will be held across eight venues in four Bangladesh cities from 27 January to 14 February.

Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Dhaka and Sylhet will share 48 matches between them during the 19-day tournament, which will open with the match between defending champion South Africa and host Bangladesh at Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium (ZACS) in Chittagong.

The tournament will culminate with the final at the iconic Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur. All matches will be day fixtures and will start at 9:30am local time. The Super League semi-finals and final will have reserve days.

For the first time in the history of this competition, ICC will produce live broadcast coverage of an unprecedented 20 matches. More details on broadcast coverage of the event will be announced in due course.

This increased broadcast coverage is a clear reflection in the enhanced profile of the event, which is billed as the platform for future stars. This claim can be substantiated by the fact that nine of the 10 current Test captains have previously played in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cups, while Pakistan’s One-Day International captain Azhar Ali participated in the 2002 tournament in New Zealand.

According to the event format, the 16 sides have been equally divided into four groups of four each, with the top two from each group progressing to the Super League stage and the bottom two to feature in the Plate Championship.

Apart from the 10 Test playing countries, six Associate and Affiliate Member sides – Afghanistan, Canada, Fiji, Namibia, Nepal and Scotland – will also participate after winning the various regional qualifying events.

South Africa have been drawn in Group A together with Bangladesh, Scotland and Namibia. They will play warm-up matches against Fiji and the West Indies on 22 and 24 January respectively.

South Africa’s group matches:
27 January: South Africa vs Bangladesh
31 January: South Africa vs Namibia
2 February: South Africa vs Scotland