Winter Training Camp is all about getting ready for the World Cup says Ireland's Morgan

Ireland's emerging batting star Eoin Morgan has admitted he is already thinking of the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2007.

"I was watching England's Test match against Pakistan in Multan this week and seeing Shoaib Akhtar running into bowl made me think of the tournament," he said

"Ireland is in Pakistan's group in the Caribbean and I was thinking what it would be like to face him myself."

That meeting is still 16 months away but Morgan, along with fellow Ireland players Kenneth Carroll and Trevor Britton and 20 other players from five other Associate countries are already gearing up for the tournament.

They are all in Pretoria attending the ICC's Winter Training Camp (WTC) and even though the camp has only just reached the halfway point in its 11-week duration, Morgan said he has already felt the benefit.

The left-hander is one of only two full-time professional cricketers attending the WTC (Scotland's Gordon Goudie is the other) as he spends his summers playing for English county Middlesex and made his first team debut in 2005.

But even though that means he is exposed to excellent practice facilities on a regular basis, especially as Middlesex play and train at Lord's, he said the WTC does not suffer in comparison.

"The South Africa sides come here to work out so you can hardly say this is a come-down from what I am exposed to at county level," said Morgan. "You might even say it is a step up.

"We have a gym and a pool, the netting and training areas are magnificent and my fitness has improved dramatically.

"Working in such a concentrated way day in and day out has helped all aspects of my game but you cannot really fail to learn in this environment especially as we are exposed to top-quality coaches.

"It is all about getting ready for the World Cup and this camp is definitely helping me a massive amount," he added.

At 19, Morgan is Ireland's latest batting hope. He was one of the heroes of their victory in this year's ICC Intercontinental Cup (he made 151 from 150 balls in the semi-final against the UAE) and is following in the footsteps of Ed Joyce.

Like Joyce he is left-handed and born in Dublin, and also like Joyce he plays for Middlesex, and the similarities do not stop there.

Joyce has just finished qualifying for England with the aim of playing Test cricket and Morgan is out to do the same thing.

"Ed is a role model and a person I look up to because he has done well and has achieved a lot at county level," said Morgan.

"He has now qualified for England and starting next year that is something I am looking to do as well.

"It will take four years and that is a long time as a lot can happen over that period but when I do qualify for England I will still only be 23 so I will still have a lot of cricket ahead of me."

Even in the short term Morgan has plenty ahead of him as the WTC is followed by next year's ICC U19 Cricket World Cup in Sri Lanka.

It will be Morgan's second time at the tournament having played in Bangladesh in 2004 when he scored 65 from 69 balls in the Plate semi-final defeat at the hands of Australia and the 2006 event is something he is already looking forward to.

"I benefited so much from playing in that last tournament," he said. "We came up against some decent teams, it was a higher standard than any of us were used to and that meant that it was a good learning curve for us all.

"We made mistakes but we learnt from them and being captain this time should be a real challenge."

Eoin Morgan - Eoin is very single-minded in his determination to progress in the game and we have used him as a role model to the other batsmen in the way he goes about constructing an innings.

Our job is to help him understand his game and to expose him to batting in different conditions than he might have been used to in his career so far. If he is to go as far in the game as he can then he has to learn to play on all types of surfaces.

Eoin is also keen to develop his medium-paced bowling but he needs to strengthen certain parts of his body, most notably his back, to ensure he can cope with the strains of bowling on a regular basis.

If he can continue to develop his bowling with Bob Cottam during the second half of the WTC then it could prove to be very effective for Ireland during next year's U19 World Cup in Sri Lanka.

Trevor Britton - An off-spinner with an unusual action, he has had to work hard to lift his fitness level and still needs to work on his fielding but Trevor is a player that is determined to get the best out of himself through hard work and determination.

At the moment Trevor bowls one type of delivery and we are looking to add some variation to his armoury, not just in terms of an arm ball or a doosra but also the pace at which he bowls.

At the moment he is a lower order batsman but he is working to improve by being a lot more selective in the strokes he plays. Overall he is a hard worker, very diligent, a good listener and someone who absorbs all information like a sponge.

If he continues to improve then he should be pushing to break into the Ireland squad and that is the aim, to create some added competition in the spin department.

Kenneth Carroll - Kenny arrived late as a replacement for Johnny Thompson, who had to return home with an injury.

He is a left-arm wrist-spinner and a forceful right-hand batsman who made a hard-hitting contribution of around 40 runs when we played against South Africa's U19 side recently.

In terms of his batting, Kenny needs to work on being more selective as he can have the tendency to try and hit every ball for four or six. He needs to realise that if you are going to score hundreds at the highest level then you are going to have to bat for a long time so he has to build his game and his thought processes accordingly.

We have been really pleased with the way he is adjusting to the regime here at the WTC and his wrist-spin is coming along nicely. He is working on his googly but needs to ensure he maintains his action at all times as that will add to his consistency. Kenny is one of the best fielders at the WTC.

Bermuda - Jekon Edness, Jim West, Stephen Outerbridge & Azeem Pitcher

Canada - Qaiser Ali, Umar Bhatti, Kenneth Carto & Henry Osinde (plus John Davison, who is filling a coaching role)

Ireland - Trevor Britton, Kenneth Carroll & Eoin Morgan

Kenya - Nehemiah Odhiambo Ngoche, Alfred Luseno & Kalpesh Patel

Netherlands - Tom de Grooth

Scotland - Richard Berrington, Kasim Farid, Gordon Goudie, Ross Lyons, Dewald Nel, Qasim Sheikh, Fraser Watts & Sean Weeraratna