FOLLOWING a successful staging of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Regional Under-19 Championships, the region's best Under-19 players will now focus their attention on the ICC Youth World Cup.

After showcasing their talent to break into the squad, 19 players were selected for a two-week camp at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona as they commence preparation for next year's tournament in Bangladesh.

Graeme West, head coach of the High Performance Centre (HPC), believes the squad, which includes Jamaicans Michael Frew, Odean Smith and Shahid Crooks, has potential but needs to improve significantly above what was displayed during the championship.

The real issue is what type of camp preparation has been planned. I have often wondered whether the process to help players cope has been well thought out. Example: The tourney is in Bangladesh on spinning lower wickets so why not have training camp in Guyana or TnT or Dominica the 3 spinning/low wickets in the region?! If it was in OZ then St Lucia for its bounce?!

The idea that its just a routine of batting and fielding training camp without trying to recreate the pitch similarity is not going to help.

Where is the full squad?