Melbourne games are crucial for Bermuda

First let me congratulate our senior national cricket team for successfully securing a spot in November’s ICC World T20 Global Qualifiers in Dubai by finishing runners up behind the USA in the recently concluded ICC Americas Division 1 T20 Championship.  

Mission accomplished.  Although most cricket pundits would have expected Bermuda to at the very least qualify from this group, the job still had to be done, the game has to be played on the field and upsets, (i.e. our defeat to Suriname) are not unusual in this particular format.

I was especially pleased with the all-round performance of veteran Janeiro Tucker as well as the batting of David Hemp, Steven Outerbridge and Dion Stovell.

The bowling attack, which I believe is a little light on pace and experience, exceeded my expectations. In fact, the only match in which they really appeared to lose their way was the second T20 game against the USA.

The three one-day friendlies against the USA provided the squad with much-needed practice ahead of the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League (WCL) Tournament to be held in Bermuda later this month.

While I would not want to read too much into it, securing that win against the USA in the final match should provide our boys with a huge psychological boost, particularly when one considers that we hadn’t beaten the USA for five years.

The upcoming matches against the renowned Jamaican Melbourne Cricket Club this weekend should be used to finally determine a few issues that appear outstanding such as settling on an opening pair of batsmen, deciding who will be our first-choice wicketkeeper and determining whether or not we are going to strengthen our fast-bowling attack by introducing another pace bowler.

George ‘Recman’ Holdipp is a cricket commentator.