Bermuda hand out first contracts

The Bermuda Cricket Board (BCB) has given a boost to the island's young players by handing out central contracts to allow them a higher level of training in all areas of the game both on and off the field.

Rodney Trott, the 20-year-old allrounder, and Tamauri Tucker, the 19-year-old, are the first two players to benefit from the new programme and the aim is to bring in the likes of Stefan Kelly, Steven Outerbridge and Jekon Edness in the near future.

"We are trying our best to get the players to a level of awareness not only of themselves, but of their own skill levels," Gus Logie, the national coach, told the CMC news agency.

"We want the younger members of the squad, the ones who may not be employed, to come on board and really and truly have them in the fold so we can build a certain kind of rapport with them as well as an understanding. If we really want them to perform at the highest level, then we have to prepare them as best as possible.

"I think in the past, we have done that with some of the more senior players and to be quite honest it hasn't worked as well as we would have liked," he added. "Those players still had responsibilities outside of cricket, even though we had them on full-time contracts.

The ICC high performance manager, Richard Done, gave the contracts a positive response after he'd encouraged the BCB to boost the training schedule ahead of the World Cup qualifiers in UAE next March.

"It's good news to see the BCB putting resources into developing players for the future," Done said. "Programmes like this can only lead to better standards for the Bermuda team."

Lionel Cann, the experienced top-order batsman, pulled out of the national squad last month citing personal and family commitments.