There are few surprises - and even fewer new faces - in the junior winter training squads announced by the KNCB this week.

The most significant of these are the under-19 and under-23 age groups: next season's European Championship in the former category will be a qualifying tournament for the 2008 Under-19 World Cup, while the latter gives an indication of the players being groomed for the full national squad.

KNCB director of youth cricket Roland Lefebvre and his fellow coaches have put together a squad of nineteen at under-19 level, ten of whom took part in the 2006 tournament. They include several players, like HCC's Bob Entrop, Quick Haag's Lesley Stokkers, and ACC pair Steven de Bruin and Maninder Kamboj, who are already first-team regulars for their clubs.

Two newcomers are VOC seamer Ahsan Malik, who played half-a-dozen Hoofdklasse matches last season, and Rood en Wit's Maurits Offerman, who played nine. Malik, in particular, made an impression in the games he played, and may turn out to be a player to watch in 2007.

Another significant inclusion is Quick Haag's Tim Gruijters (photo right), who has done well both at under-15 level and in his club's Second team.

The fourteen players named in the under-23 squad include eight who took part in the 2006 tournament at this level, while the rest have varying degrees of experience in European and Hoofdklasse competitions. They include such Hoofdklasse regulars as Tom Heggelman (Excelsior), Maarten van Ierschot and Daan van Everdingen (VOC), Geert-Maarten Mol and Somesh Kohli (Quick Haag), and Harro Seelaar (Hermes-DVS).

An interesting feature of the list is a group of six players selected for A-team training sessions over the winter. This comprises Rif Bakas (Rood en Wit), Mudassar Bukhari (VVV), Bas van der Heyde (ACC), Ruud Nijman (Hermes-DVS), Jelte Schoonheim (VOC), and Vimal Tewarie (Dosti). Of these six, only Bukhari turned out for a Dutch team this season, although the others have all played in national sides in the past.

But with a shake-up of the full side likely after next year's World Cup, there is a great need for players on the fringes of the squad to assert their claim for a place.

The under-19 and under-23 squads are:

Under-19:
Steven de Bruin, Maninder Kamboj and Ollie Lodder (ACC), Max Balm, Ollie de Geus and Waqar Khan (HBS), Chris Davey, Graeme Davey, Bob Entrop and Thijs Fischer (HCC), Adriaan Stolk (Kampong Utrecht), Stijn Allema, Tim Gruijters, Hidde Maarleveld and Lesley Stokkers (Quick Haag), Maurits Offerman (Rood en Wit), Ahsan Malik and Karel Vieler (VOC), and Chris Bekedam (VRA).

Under-23:
Mohsin Ghaznavi (ACC), Tom Heggelman (Excelsior), Maninder Singh and Berend Westdijk (HBS), Maurits Jonkman (HCC), Pieter van der Hammen, Borg Lenstra and Harro Seelaar (Hermes-DVS), Somesh Kohli and Geert-Maarten Mol (Quick Haag), Daan van Everdingen and Maarten van Ierschot (VOC), Jeroen Westermann (VRA), and Mudassar Bukhari (VVV).