Cricket Scotland�s Technical Director Peter Drinnen has named the 14 players who will compete in the next year's Youth World Cup in Sri Lanka. The team qualified for the tournament as winners of the European Championships in 2005 and the majority of the players who participated in that success have been retained for the World Cup to be held in February 2006.

The squad contains seven players who have previous experience at this level, with Moneeb Iqbal poised to participate in his third World Cup at Under 19 level following his appearances at the tournaments in New Zealand (2000) at the age of 15 and Bangladesh (2002). Others who featured in the Bangladesh World Cup are team captain Kasim Farid, Sean Weeraratna, Gordon Goudie, Andy Hislop, Rajeev Routray and Robert Cannon. Of those players, two have already featured in the Scottish Saltires, with Goudie making his debut against Middlesex in 2004 and Weeraratna against Durham in 2005.

Drinnen, also coach of the Under 19 squad, is optimistic about producing a strong performance in Sri Lanka, despite the strength of the opposition and weather conditions which will be unlike those usually experienced by his players.

He said: �We believe this to be one of the strongest groups of players produced in Scotland at this level for some time and the squad has been putting in a lot of work over the last few months on their skill and their fitness levels. In addition, four of the players are currently attending the ICC High Performance Academy in South Africa and should be in great shape when they come home in December.

"We realise that in Sri Lanka and India we are playing two of the top sides in the world in their own environment, but our preparation has taken into account what we expect to come up against and the players are relishing the challenge that lies ahead.�

The squad departs for a pre-tournament training camp in Sri Lanka on January 23, with their matches in the Youth World Cup taking place on Sunday February 5 against Sri Lanka, Wednesday February 8 against India and Thursday February 9 against Namibia.

Full squad:

  • Kasim Farid (Clydesdale, captain)
  • Richard Berrington (Greenock)
  • David Bill (Uddingston)
  • Tyler Buchan (Aberdeenshire)
  • Robert Cannon (Forfarshire)
  • Gordon Goudie (Middlesex)
  • Andrew Hislop (Greaves Clydesdale)
  • Moneeb Iqbal (Durham Academy)
  • Calum MacLeod (Drumpellier)
  • Scott MacLennan (Grange)
  • Umair Mohammad (Forfarshire)
  • Rajeev Routray (Ferguslie)
  • Amir Shahzad (Stenhousemuir)
  • Sean Weeraratna (Heriots)
  • Peter Drinnen (Coach)
  • Andrew Lawson (Assistant Coach)
  • Tino Weeraratna (Manager)
  • Andrew Raseli (Physiotherapist)