The 20-day camp, which began on June 15, will end on Saturday with the 20-trainees from all over India returning home richer by a lesson or two.

But, just 20 days were allotted for the youngsters to go through their paces and the camp is being held during off-season. Which means the players will have to wait for three months for competitions to begin.

Chairman of the junior selection committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Hemant Kanitkar, said an India under-19 team could be included in the Challenger Trophy as the fourth team. The other three teams are India Seniors, India A and India B. `

Kanitkar was of the view that zonal camps should be conducted instead of an all-India camp. ``This would allow them to spend longer time at camp while the coach/manager gets to know every player from close quarters. Most of the time, the coach/manager does not knoweven the name of the player.''

``There should be a SAARC tournament for the junior team on the lines of Asia Cup or Asian Test championship,'' said Kanitkar.

Former Karnataka Ranji captain and international umpire AV Jayaprakash who is the chief coach of the camp said the results were satisfactory. ``The main theme of the camp was fielding. The boys were taught sliding and diving techniques. I have asked the boys to teach the technique to atleast four other players when they return home.''

Jayaprakash said though 20 days were not enough, they had done their best.

Former Ranji Trophy players Rajesh Kamat and H Surendra, the assistant coaches, were also of the opinion that the camp, despite being short, was successful.

Only one genuine medium pacer -- Siddarth of Gujurat -- has been called. There is no leg-spinner in the camp. As an afterthought, the services of local lad Girish Nadig was enlisted.

There are some promising players -- off-spinner P Dharmichand (Karnataka), the youngest player in thecamp, Ankush Singh, an all-rounder from Madhya Pradesh, S Das, Surakshit Lehri (Bengal), Dhiresh (Baroda, wicket-keeper), Rajan Singh (Delhi) and Vivek Deshmukh (Maharashtra) are some of the players who have impressed.

Varun Kumar of Delhi, one of the trainees, said the camp has been useful. ``The extensive physical training and the fielding practice have been really wonderful,'' he said. While most other trainees agreed on his point, the unanimous opinion was that a 20-day camp was too short.