---

Bermuda is definitely the favourites to win the Americas Championship. I’ve played in the last couple of tournaments and am familiar with the other teams. 

Canada will be strong as they have one or two senior players, but it looks like Canada is bringing their B team. Not all of their top stars are coming and they have a lot of youngsters from their Under-19 team on their squad. They can’t be counted out though as they still will present a challenge.

The U.S. is missing four of their top players, including their main strike bowler. They can still compete, but we should still beat them. If we don’t win the tournament, I would be very disappointed.

There isn’t any team in this tournament that should beat Bermuda and we should go undefeated. These teams are weaker than Bermuda and they’re weaker than the previous two tournaments. Canada was so strong in those and the U.S. was also strong. 

The only thing that might work against us in this tournament is the schedule. We play four of our matches at the National Sports Centre. While that might be great in trying to get fans to come watch the match at lunchtime or when they knock off from work, it puts us at a slight disadvantage.

If we lose a match and it has to be decided on run rate, then that could hurt us. We play four games at the National Sports Centre, which is the biggest ground. Canada and the U.S. are playing on the smaller fields, so they’ll have an advantage if at the end everyone is tied on points, then net run rate comes into play.

If we’re playing at home, then we should take advantage of every home field advantage we can get.

The crowds won’t be that big at the National Sports Centre anyway. They’ll be a few people who work in Hamilton who will pop in if they have an opportunity, but more people would go to a club field way quicker than they would at the National Sports Centre.

We just won’t get a big crowd there when we play cricket. That’s a proven fact. We could get a big crowd in St. David’s, Bailey’s Bay or wherever.

The weekend matches easily could have been scheduled for a club’s ground.

Regardless of that, we should still win.

We have a lot of strengths in our team. The batting is really strong. Our top five or six in the order have to be our best batsmen. Someone like (David) Hemp can’t bat no later than three. 

That’s a mistake we made at the World Cup Qualifiers. We don’t have a devastating batsman down the order like a Dean Minors or a Janeiro Tucker so we have to set the innings up from the front. 

Irving Romaine can also be a huge force for us when he’s on.

If we do have a weakness is that we only have one spinner. I felt we should have selected Tamauri Tucker. We know how the wicket plays at the National Sports Centre. If we’re going to play four matches there, then, obviously, we need two spinners as spinners have dominated at that ground. 

Rodney Trott can’t shoulder the load alone for us. n

Bermuda is definitely the favourites to win the Americas Championship. I’ve played in the last couple of tournaments and am familiar with the other teams. 

Canada will be strong as they have one or two senior players, but it looks like Canada is bringing their B team. Not all of their top stars are coming and they have a lot of youngsters from their Under-19 team on their squad. They can’t be counted out though as they still will present a challenge.

The U.S. is missing four of their top players, including their main strike bowler. They can still compete, but we should still beat them. If we don’t win the tournament, I would be very disappointed.

There isn’t any team in this tournament that should beat Bermuda and we should go undefeated. These teams are weaker than Bermuda and they’re weaker than the previous two tournaments. Canada was so strong in those and the U.S. was also strong. 

The only thing that might work against us in this tournament is the schedule. We play four of our matches at the National Sports Centre. While that might be great in trying to get fans to come watch the match at lunchtime or when they knock off from work, it puts us at a slight disadvantage.

If we lose a match and it has to be decided on run rate, then that could hurt us. We play four games at the National Sports Centre, which is the biggest ground. Canada and the U.S. are playing on the smaller fields, so they’ll have an advantage if at the end everyone is tied on points, then net run rate comes into play.

If we’re playing at home, then we should take advantage of every home field advantage we can get.

The crowds won’t be that big at the National Sports Centre anyway. They’ll be a few people who work in Hamilton who will pop in if they have an opportunity, but more people would go to a club field way quicker than they would at the National Sports Centre.

We just won’t get a big crowd there when we play cricket. That’s a proven fact. We could get a big crowd in St. David’s, Bailey’s Bay or wherever.

The weekend matches easily could have been scheduled for a club’s ground.

Regardless of that, we should still win.

We have a lot of strengths in our team. The batting is really strong. Our top five or six in the order have to be our best batsmen. Someone like (David) Hemp can’t bat no later than three. 

That’s a mistake we made at the World Cup Qualifiers. We don’t have a devastating batsman down the order like a Dean Minors or a Janeiro Tucker so we have to set the innings up from the front. 

Irving Romaine can also be a huge force for us when he’s on.

If we do have a weakness is that we only have one spinner. I felt we should have selected Tamauri Tucker. We know how the wicket plays at the National Sports Centre. If we’re going to play four matches there, then, obviously, we need two spinners as spinners have dominated at that ground. 

Rodney Trott can’t shoulder the load alone for us.

[[In-content Ad]]

---