Americas Cup: Cayman Islands seek a bigger stage after successful debut at continental championship

The Cayman Islands, buoyed by their promising display at last week's Americas Cup, will ask the International Cricket Council to be given reserve status for next year's ICC Trophy in Canada.

Officials of the Affiliate member of the world body hope to fill any vacancy left by withdrawals from the Associates only tournament to be held in Toronto, Canada in June next year.

The Caymans were rated by one national coach at the inaugural get together of Americas non-Test countries "as good as half the Associate countries", while victorious Canadian captain, Joe Harris, said "they would definitely be competitive in the Second Division of the Trophy."

Making their international debut, the little known and unfancied Caymanians beat Argentina and came close to toppling the United States. They also restricted Canada and Bermuda to low scores.

Their bowling attack was rated as one of the best of the tournament, although the batting was brittle, with two totals under 100.

The performance of the Caymanians was just one positive in a tournament generally regarded as a success.

Fittingly, the tournament's two best teams, Canada and Bermuda, played off for the trophy on the last day of play, with the home team, boosted by Canadian born Victorian player, John Davison, winning decisively.

The United States, fielding a young team which included only five members of the squad which toured England recently, fell to both Canada and Bermuda, and scraped home on the last ball against the Cayman Islands.

Although winless, Argentina impressed with their standard of fielding and general enthusiasm. They deserve praise for fielding an almost totally indigenous squad.

The tournament also proved a useful warmup for the administrators of next year's ICC Trophy, to be held in Toronto. Most players and officials were satisfied with the organisation of the tournament, despite a couple of hitches, including a match being delayed due to lack of a sightboard.

The long term future of the event is assured, with the next one to almost certainly act as a qualifying tournament for a reduced ICC Trophy, which will in turn, provide the Associates' qualifiers for the 2007 World Cup.

Last week's tournament also saw the second Americas Forum, at which it was agreed to investigate the possibility of staging a tournament for Affiliate members and other countries in the Americas development zone.