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It's a real honour for me just to play for St. George's at Cup Match, but to be captaining my team again is an amazing feeling.

The significance and the meaning of the two days of Cup Match is very important to me. It's like leading a team out of slavery - there's much more to it than just cricket.

I've been reminding my players in the build up to Cup Match that they are not just representing themselves or St. George's, they are representing a great cause and a tradition that was started on this island back in 1902.

From a purely sporting perspective playing international cricket is the ultimate for me. But Cup Match is about more than just sport - you're playing for your culture, you're playing for your family.

I've been trying to impress that on the younger players this week. It's not just two days cricket and a chance to show off.

Working on strategy

After playing Cup Match for so long the pre-game routine is pretty familiar to me now, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying it.

We'll check into the Hamilton Princess on Wednesday and that's when Cup Match really starts for us.

We'll have dinner together and a team meeting on Wednesday night and we'll talk through tactics.

We'll have our backroom staff with us - the coaches George Cannonier, Herbie Bascome and Clevie Wade and our manager Barry Sousa, the physio Cal Dill. The president comes along too, Neil Paynter, and he'll give us a little talk as well.

Then we'll just cool off and relax and get a good night's sleep before the bus takes us to St. George's in the morning.

I always enjoy the ride in, in the morning. It gives you time to feel the breeze and gather your thoughts before you get to the game.

We'll play to win

We're the champions this year and the expectations are high, but that's cool. As captain that's the kind of pressure that I enjoy.

Cup Match is a big crowd and a big atmosphere but that's what we play for. The bigger the crowd the more you want to entertain. Nobody wants to score a hundred with the stands empty.

Cup Match is always a more tactical game and skippering the side in that kind of atmosphere is something that I really, really enjoy.

I'm a student of the game, I have two or three game-plans already, for every eventuality.

People think that as champions we may be happy to draw the game and keep the Cup but that's not the way I like to play.

We are looking for a big win. The first target is to give Somerset a two-to-one (an innings victory) - that would be the ultimate, if we can't get that then we'd be happy with a victory, but we're definitely not the sort of team that plays for a draw.

We've got an extra incentive to try and win this year because we want to be the first side to get a three-peat in the modern era. That's never been done since Calvin 'Bummy' Symonds era and it hasn't been done since we moved to turf wickets.

I think we've got a great team this year. We have the best of the young players in Bermuda and the best of the older players. Guys like Clay Smith and Charlie Marshall are going to go down in history.

But if you look at the last two years it's our younger players that have done it for us. Chris Foggo was the MVP in '05 and then OJ Pitcher last year. That just shows the talent we have in St. George's.

I'm feeling pretty confident about my team. One thing I can tell you we will not lose. If the wicket is good and the weather stays fine, I know we will win.[[In-content Ad]]

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