BASSETERRE, St Kitts (CMC) — West Indies Under-19 manager Omar Khan believes the team’s one-week camp has taken the squad closer to readiness for the 2010 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup next month in New Zealand.

The camp, which included a pair of handsome practice match victories over Canada, ends Friday and Khan hailed its value.

“The camp has gone pretty okay, we have achieved most of the goals and objectives we set out regarding the overall readiness,” Khan told CMC Sport after Wednesday’s six-wicket victory at Warner Park.

The 18-man squad here will be trimmed to 15 and they are booked to leave the Caribbean on December 31 for a one-week camp in New Zealand before the official ICC U-19 programme begins.

Khan hinted that the players face a working Christmas holiday ahead of the New Zealand trip, mindful of their need to ensure that the seasonal revelry does not undermine their build-up for the ICC event.

“We have stressed the importance of the players taking responsibility for their preparedness for New Zealand,” Khan said.

“They have been given programmes by the physio and the coach and as young professionals they need to maintain this until we meet again at month-end,” he added.

In Monday’s first warm-up win over Canada, Kraigg Brathwaite (108 not out) and Andre Creary (50) steered the Caribbean side to a 71-run victory, with solid help from spinners Jomel Warrican (1-11) and Patrick Harty (1-21) who produced stifling spells in a rain-hit match.

In Wednesday’s second match, spinners were again pivotal with Akeem Dewar (3-27) and Yannic Cariah (2-20) limiting the Canadians to 128 all out before Evin Lewis (49) and Trevon Griffith (21) guided the Windies U19s to a six-wicket win with more than 23 overs to spare.

Khan believes the match performances were encouraging but he concedes that far more difficult assignments are ahead.

“We have to understand that the World Cup will be tougher. When we get to New Zealand, it will be different opposition, a step up from the Canadians,” he said.

Khan said he was “mostly satisfied” with the team’s execution in their matches against Canada.

All departments, with the exception of fast bowling, were heartening for the former West Indies Test team manager.

“The batsmen looked okay, (Kraigg) Brathwaite got a hundred, (Andre) Creary a 50 and (Evin) Lewis also got a (near) half-century on Wednesday. The batsmen looked in good knick, displaying a good attitude to building an innings.”

“Coach Andre Coley and Roddy Estwick are doing a tremendous job in getting them to plan their innings, the spinners look good, they were excellent but there is still some work for the pace men regarding consistency in bowling line and length, the fielding has been very good,” Khan said.

West Indies will begin their campaign at the 2010 ICC U19 World Cup on January 15 against Pakistan at Fitzherbert Park, before Bangladesh on January 17 and Papua New Guinea two days later in their remaining Group D matches in Napier.

The West Indies 15-man squad to New Zealand should be named later this week.

In their best-ever showing in the Youth World Cup, West Indies were runners-up to Pakistan in Dhaka in 2004.

Denesh Ramdin, Xavier Marshall, Lendl Simmons, and Ravi Rampaul were among the West Indies U-19 players in a 25-run loss to the Pakistanis in that championship decider.