One young Yorkshire player who has not been short of challenges this winter is 17-year-old Academy wicketkeeper-batsman Greg Wood from Netherthong, near Holmfirth.

Wood spent November and December in Bangladesh playing for England in the Under-19s Tri-Nations tournament, and next Wednesday he's jetting off again - this time to Malaysia and then on to Sri Lanka for the Under-19s World Cup next month.

Wood is the only Yorkshire representative in the England squad of 14 and he's determined to do everything he can to make sure that he and his team-mates take the cup off holders Pakistan.

England will spend ten days warming up and acclimatising in Malaysia before moving on to Colombo, with the World Cup being played at five venues around the Sri Lankan capital.

Wood admits that England Under-19s were well below par on their visit to Bangladesh, where they failed to win a match, but he says that everyone in the team learned a lot, which will stand them in good stead in Colombo.

"We got off to a bad start and never really adapted to the conditions, which meant that we continued to struggle." he said.

"Four of the lads had played previously in India but for the rest of us cricket in that part of the world was a completely new experience.

"The heat and the humidity were new to us and the pitches were so different from those we were used to.

"They turned much earlier than at home and there were only about ten overs of seam at the start of an innings before the spinners came on.

"From a wicketkeeper's point of view, it was surprising to see the ball turning square after only a few overs. It took a bit of getting used to but I felt I learned a lot both behind the stumps and with the bat.

"I thought I kept well throughout the tour. I batted at seven or eight for most of the time and it was difficult to get going but in the last two games I opened the batting and scored 21 and 31.

"We played 11 matches during the series - five against the Bangladesh High Perfor-mance XI, three against Bangladesh Under-19s and three against Sri Lanka Under-19s.

"Despite our poor form, the tour was definitely worthwhile and we could not have had better preparation for the World Cup because conditions are very similar in Sri Lanka to Bangladesh.

"There are four new faces in our World Cup squad and hopefully they will give us an extra boost. If we make a good start and get into the rhythm then I can see no reason why we should not go a long way. We start off in the same group as Ireland, Nepal and Zimbabwe, so it should not be too difficult to finish in the top two and make it to the quarter-finals at least."

Wood spent two days with the rest of the squad at the England Academy at Lough-borough recently but he's steered clear of playing too much indoor cricket.

"It would be more difficult to adapt to conditions out there if I had played in-doors a lot and I have spent most of my time on fitness work and drills."

The tour to Bangladesh meant that Wood missed a whole half-term at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield, and the World Cup means taking another three weeks out of school. "The teachers have been very helpful and I have been given extra lessons to catch up," he said.

Although only just 17, Wood is already no stranger to international cricket and last winter he captained England Under-16s on their successful tour of South Africa, emerging as his country's second-highest scorer

Wood and his elder brother Daniel once featured in a record stand of 300 for QEGS, each hitting an unbeaten 139.