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Premier Alex Scott stood by his pledge to be Bermuda cricket team's "15th man" in their bid for World Cup glory, pledging $11m to the sport over the next five years.

The government set the tone, which cricket bosses hope international business and other corporate sponsors will follow, by agreeing to finance the core of Bermuda's preparations for West Indies 2007.

The package of spending also includes cash for youth development, ground and infrastructure improvements and support for the national team beyond the World Cup.

Neil Speight, chief executive of the BCB, welcomed the news and said it would help the board to ink in some of their plans for the next few years.

He said some of the money would be used for training academies - with Jekon Edness now joining Azeem Pitcher, Jim West and Stephen Outerbridge at the ICC's facility in South Africa.

Plans for a major youth development schedule will now be possible. The BCB will be able to increase the professionalism of the national set up, with the addition of physiotherapists and nutritionists.

The Government sponsorship also makes Bermuda's bid to host a mini-world cup featuring the six second-tier cricketing nations a much more realistic proposition.

Speight said there was money set aside to make the necessary ground improvements if the ICC decided to stage the tournament in Bermuda in August next year.

He also confirmed that Bermuda would take part in the Caribbean 20-20 tournament in Trinidad next fall - where they will compete with 17 teams, including some of the top West Indian sides, for a $1million top prize. Bermuda will get $100,000 for signing on to the tournament and $15,000 a month to help it prepare for the tournament.

The team will also get $500,000 from the ICC for qualifying for the World Cup.

The globetrotting schedule tentatively announced last month for Gus Logie's men will not be finalized until the ICC Development Committee meets in November.

But Speight said Bermuda would be involved in at least ten weeks of competitive international cricket next year.

Besides next month's Intercontinental Cup semi-final in Namibia against Kenya, Bermuda has been negotiating to play Bangladesh before the end of the year.

It is hoped that will be followed up with a training camp in Trinidad and Tobago in either February or March.

Bermuda is slated to take part in a triangular series against Canada and Zimbabwe and the Intercontinental Cup in the summer.

But it is clear that those match-ups are just a small part of the plan with Government's sizable contribution adding to a well of funding that is expected to take Bermuda cricket to a new level.

Premier Scott said yesterday: "It is a new era for cricket in Bermuda and the government will do all it can to ensure we are on the world cricketing stage for many years to come."

He said the government, with its contribution, was not just investing in the national team but was investing in sport.[[In-content Ad]]

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