Dutch youth coach Roland Lefebvre said on Tuesday that, despite his side’s initial loss to Bangladesh in the CLICO International Under-15 Championship, the squad is in good heart and looking forward to the round-robin competition which begins in Guyana on Saturday.

After practising at Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad on Monday, the team travels to the unpromisingly named village of Penal on Tuesday, where they will take on a Powergen XI in a friendly match.

Later in the week they fly to Guyana, where they will meet Pakistan on Saturday and Malaysia on Sunday in the opening games of the round-robin phase of the tournament.

Lefebvre was pleased with some aspects of Saturday’s performance against Bangladesh, not least the fact that the Dutch boys were able to bat for 45 overs.

‘Bangladesh were clearly the better side, and better prepared,’ he said on Tuesday, ‘but for our boys the challenge is in every department of the game.

‘This tournament is an opportunity for us to work on many aspects, such as shot selection, playing with soft hands in the early stages of an innings, and sharper running between the wickets.

‘It was great that the batsmen were able to stay around, but they found scoring runs difficult. It’s a question of balance, of being quicker on your feet, as well as of shot selection.

‘In bowling and fielding, too, there are disciplines which have to be learned and worked on. We have to use this fantastic environment to help the boys move up to the next level. They are able to practise in magnificent conditions, and to benefit from video analysis and other techniques that the senior players are used to.’

Lefebvre had praise for the way Philip Kingma and James Gruijters batted early on in the Bangladesh game, and for top scorer Nick Wories’s 27 at the end.

‘It’s a totally new experience for the squad,’ Lefebvre says, ‘and it’s a tremendous luxury being able to concentrate on cricket for two weeks without any of the normal distractions.’