We're learning to be mentally tough

We are playing at a world class facility. There are two big playing fields with indoor nets. It has all the bells and whistles you’d expect from a world class cricket ground.

It is absolutely fantastic.

We’ve also been working with a psychologist who is helping us visualize and use imagery. He’s been teaching us to use different visuals to play our innings ahead of time.

He’s working on us to think of positive expectations.

He’s helping people respect their roles and responsible for their own game.

Taking responsibility

It’s a big deal.

Cricket is about 30 per cent physical and 70 per cent thought process.

It’s working for me already and I can see it working in the other guys too.

It teaches you how to take responsibility for your own game.

If it’s not working, then it’s only you that can change it.

It could be more training or it could be you spending more time mentally preparing.

This is helping us become better cricketers and better people in life, too.

This is really great that our young cricketers are getting this now and it should help them shape their lives in a more positive manner.

Our two wins are proof this is working.

We were down in both matches and fought back for the wins.

In the past, that’s something that’s been lacking.

It’s helped us build some mental toughness and helping us not to panic when these situations arise.

It’s building that attitude that we’re never out of the game.

Guys are learning to play one ball at a time instead of thinking too far ahead.

In the past, Bermuda usually crumbles under pressure and we start throwing away wickets.

The guys have really stepped up to the wicket.

The sports psychologist is doing a great job with us.

The youngsters are putting in the work.

They are realizing that when they are coming up short, Coach David Moore is letting them know.

Other players are also stepping up.

We’re all becoming more responsible.

There’s still a lot more work to be done, but this is starting off on the right foot.

Young Kamau Leverock and Damali Bell are perfect examples of this.

They’ve gotten an eye-opener about what international cricket is all about and they did well.

Young guns

Everyone is playing their role.

Hemp got a hundred on Wednesday. The day before Jason Anderson and Chris Foggo had a nice partnership

Rodney Trott came in and had a nice unbeaten knock at the end. Malachi picked up four wickets.

Young Bell didn’t start too well and his overall figures didn’t look good, but he came back in at a critical moment and bowled well in limiting them to 10 runs in three overs.

That’s good too because it showed that he was learning from what he did early on in the match that wasn’t working.

He also took a diving catch which took their top batsman out. The game changed from there.

That’s a huge positive.

We had a young cricketer learning to make adjustments as the match progressed.

Focused

Young Leverock’s overall numbers weren’t that great, but he stayed tuned in throughout the whole match, regardless of what happened to him personally when batting.

He didn’t let that affect how he fielded.

He’s only 15 so that’s a huge positive too that he stayed mentally tuned in.

Having him learn this at an early age will pay huge dividends for Bermuda cricket in the future.

We still have three tough games against UAE and they’re not going to want to give up anything to us in their house.

We just have to keep building on the successes in the lead up to April.