ICC: Bermuda can use its size as an advantage

Andy Pick, the ICC high performance manager for the Americas region, says Bermuda can use its size as an advantage when it goes up against larger Associate countries.

Pick was in Bermuda to consult with Bermuda Cricket Board chief executive Neil Speight and national coach Arnold Manders over a range of issues regarding the future of the game on the island.

With an ICC Division Three tournament expected to take place later in the year, the priority is to gain promotion and for Bermuda to test themselves at a higher level.

And rather than see the island’s size as a hindrance, Pick urged players and fans to use it to foster a greater sense of unity.

Pick told the Bermuda Sun: “Certain people here have said to me ‘we’re only small, we don’t have a lot of people’ but rather than it be a disadvantage, in our discussion we focused on the positives — if you play a Canadian under-17 team, the chances are you are from Vancouver or Winnipeg and you’ve never met your team-mate before you get to Toronto. But here you can have everybody in your squad together for six months.”

Pick believes that the high-profile axing from their national teams of Kevin Pietersen and Jesse Ryder should send out a message to all international cricketers, including those in Bermuda, that players must be willing to embrace a strong team ethic in order to achieve success.

“I’ve been saying this a lot lately – I think you’ve got to be prepared to draw a line in the sand and say this is the way we are going. 

“If you want to be a part of it, fantastic, but if you don’t that’s fine but don’t be part of it and be disruptive. At the moment, with what’s happened with Kevin Pietersen and with Jesse Ryder, both have been left out of their country’s squad.

“Ryder is probably in the top five T20 batters in the world but because he is not prepared to buy into the team’s way of the best chance of success [he’s out]. If people don’t want to practise then you have to be prepared to leave them out.”

A large proportion of Pick’s trip was spent planning ahead for the younger players. 

The under-17s’ camp will put down the ‘starting blocks’ for the following Under-18 World Cup qualifiers and the development of the group of players in the UK was also discussed at length.

“If Bermuda have got six of their best under-19s in England, they need to make sure they know exactly what is going on with their players because they are looking for those players to play not just in the under-19s but also three or four of them to go on and play for Bermuda for the next 10 years. 

“You can’t just leave them in the UK and hope they are improving — and I think Bermuda have been very good and quick at grasping that.”