Team Bahamas ready for battle

It may be a few months out, but The Bahamas’ Senior Men’s National Cricket Team is ready for battle, training for the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Men’s Twenty-Twenty (T20) World Cup Americas Qualifier Tournament, set for July 17-23, in Toronto, Canada.

The tournament is the first qualifier for the 2022 ICC Men’s T20 Word Cup. The top two teams will progress to one of two global qualifiers. The tournament was originally set for August 2020 but was postponed due to the presence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Bahamas is set to take part in the tournament along with Argentina, Belize, Bermuda, Canada, the Cayman Islands, Panama and the United States of America (USA).

If the team travels, it will be the country’s third national team to travel since the pandemic brought the majority of sports events in the world to a sudden stop last year March. The other two other national teams to travel were the senior men’s national basketball team which traveled twice and the senior men’s national soccer team which traveled once.

The cricket team has been training four days out of the week for the past month at Haynes Oval in New Providence. Head Coach of the team Marlon Graham said he is focused on the fitness aspect at this point of training.

“We have been training now for four weeks and it has been going good. We did the initial timing and fitness with the guys. We did another one last weekend and there were stark improvements to the times of the guys in their sprinting. We ran a yo-yo test, and ran in twos and threes. Some of the players improved by a half of a second. I am very impressed with the progress that the guys have made this far,” Graham stated.

Graham said he is grateful to the Bahamas Cricket Association (BCA) for getting permission for the team to train and prepare for this upcoming tournament.

Opening batsman and one of the leaders on the team Marc Taylor said that the team is progressing and persons have been coming out to the sessions.

“I think as a team we progressed very well,” Taylor said. “Basically, we worked a lot on our fitness from day one. We have seen a big improvement in that department. Training has been good and the numbers have been good. People have been coming out and taking it seriously,” Taylor said.

For spin bowler and top order batsman Turan Brown, he welcomes the intensity of the sessions. The Bahamas is not known for excelling internationally in the sport of cricket, but Brown said he is looking forward to them leaving it all on the pitch and winning the tournament.

“Over the last two decades, The Bahamas has been going on the international level and just participating,” Brown said. “From my perspective, The Bahamas has not represented on the international stage in the last seven years; so for us to go back on the international stage, the main priority is for us to go there and win and not just participate. We have to go out there and perform as best as we can.”

To assist in ensuring that The Bahamas is well-prepared, Graham has invited former Barbadian cricket players Corey Collymore and Shirley Clarke to assist in training. Both players played for Barbados’ Senior Men’s National Team with Collymore also getting called to play for the West Indies team. They were set to fly into the country this week, but because of the La Soufrière volcano eruption in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados has encountered a lot of ashes which forced the closure of the Grantley Adams International Airport there.

Graham is looking at strengthening the batting of the team which he said has been one of their weaker areas.

“This is the first time I’ve been with them,” he said. “I am having chats and I am looking at what they did in the past. It is clear that batting is one of their weaker points. I think the conditions may have a bit to do with that because they came from batting on a concrete surface and to go play on a turf. As you can see, we are trying to put the turf pitch back down and then get the guys more accustomed to the batting on a clay or turf surface. I think that will help out a lot. The bowling is actually pretty good. These guys are decent line and length bowlers. I think that once the batting is up to standard, The Bahamas will have a decent chance of winning.”

Pace bowler and bottom order batsman Gregory Irving said he is getting there fitness-wise. He said he is ready to help the team come away with a victory in Canada.

“It has been great. I do a lot of work behind the scenes, so for me, the progress is going great. Fitness-wise, I am at about 85 percent and hopefully by next week or so, I could hit my peak,” Irving stated. “I hope to give 200 percent … as always when I tour with the team. Whatever the team needs me to do, I’ll be ready to do it. We are looking forward to the tournament because I know we have a decent squad. In a way we can really give an account for ourselves. We can perform really well and give the other teams a little run for their money.”

There is no local competitive cricket taking place so it will be even more difficult for the team to see exactly how they have developed and progressed. Brown and Taylor said they will look to get into top form by May.

Graham said he will turn it up a level, preparing for more difficult drills.

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