Manders: Starting 11 is ‘still a puzzle’

Yesterday’s rainouts of practice matches did not affect Bermuda’s chances ahead of the World Cricket League tournament that starts on Sunday.

Arnold Manders, Bermuda head coach, said his players have played on all the fields before so they already know the conditions. If anything, Mother Nature helped Bermuda out by keeping the other teams off the fields on Thursday.

“It’s not really affecting us,” Manders said. “We’ve batted on all the wickets already, they haven’t.”

Bermuda has Friday off, except for David Hemp who may get a bit of a play as he was in camp today for the first time after flying in from the UK.

“We’re not sure if we’re going to let him play tomorrow because we can’t afford any injuries ahead of Sunday. Hemp flew in last night (Wednesday) so hopefully he’ll get a hit in. Treadwell Gibbons was supposed to play today so maybe we’ll let him play tomorrow, but that will be it.”

Manders is not only hoping for a large vocal crowd to turn out for the matches, but for the fans to get behind Bermuda rather than being negative.

Bermuda takes on Uganda Sunday at the National Sports Centre.

He said: “Most people will be in church early, but I’m hoping in the afternoon it fills up. Hopefully we’ll have some tourists support us and the general public.”

The head coach said when he used to captain Bermuda, sometimes it was better to play away than at home because of the negativity of a few, overly loud spectators.

“They were too critical — not really supportive. We’ve (the coach staff) have been working with the mental stuff trying to keep in tune with the game so they don’t hear the negative stuff coming from the outside.”

Manders said when there is a constant barrage of negativity, it can affect a player’s game.

“That’s something the players have to deal with on the field. Hopefully, they choose and make the right decision.”

He said captain Stephen Outerbridge has made a public plea for residents to be supportive of the squad.

Manders said he has not completely made up his mind about the starting 11 for Sunday.

Puzzle

“It’s still a puzzle. I’m still trying to put together. It depends on the day with the conditions of the wicket and the weather. Once we get to the ground I can make a better decision.”

The head coach said the practice losses earlier in the week to Italy and Oman bode no ill fortune to Bermuda’s chances ahead of the tournament proper.

“We are prepared because we went to Barbados for two weeks and we went to the Twenty/20 for two weeks and we had the Melbourne Cricket Club here so we’ve had a lot of match practice in already. It’s just a matter of keeping fine-tuned before the tournament starts.”

Manders added it’s critical to get off to a winning start.

“If we can win our game on Sunday and then win our game on Monday, that means at least a top four finish, then we’ll maybe need only one more win out of the remaining three matches and that will put us in the top two.

“Six points can get us there, but eight would definitely put us in the top two.”