Bermuda Under-17 will make their debut in the First Division tomorrow at White Hill Field against Somerset Bridge, but Terry Fray, the team director, says that their participation is more about development and achieving targets than winning.

The youngsters, coached by Clevie Wade and with Russell Richardson as the manager, are also playing in the Evening Cricket League, where they had two wins this week at Shelly Bay Field. Tomorrow’s match will be a rare Sunday outing for the team, who will play most of their games on Saturdays, with the players able to rejoin their clubs on Sundays.

The objective of having Bermuda Under-17 in the league is to keep the team together leading up to a triangular tournament in August and Under-19 World Cup qualifiers in April 2015.

“Basically, we just got the team together and starting training,” Fray said. “We had a three-day trial at Berkeley a couple of weeks ago and from that we were able to pick initially 23 players and we’re up to 25 now.

“What we want to do is expose them to as much cricket as possible, whereas in the past they lacked match practice. The idea now is to get them to play where they can learn at the same time and understand game situations, match analysis and be able to understand batsmanship, bowling, planning and playing as a team.

“It’s all about their development and through development it’s a process. We’re not overwhelming them with information, but giving them three goals to achieve in each discipline: batting, bowling and fielding. That’s how we are measuring their development and progress.

“With the bowling, we are getting them to understand that we want them to knock over the off stump, so they bowl the ball in a good area. A good example of that was on Wednesday night when we got ten wickets and out of that seven were bowled. So they achieved their goal.

“In batting, the objective was running between the wickets, rotating the strike and hitting the gaps. Fielding was backing up, moving between overs quickly and supporting the bowler. It has to be achievable goals, not unrealistic goals.”

The young team have some members who are already playing in their clubs’ senior teams, while many have been on tours together and are familiar with each other. The captain of the team will change every game.

“The boys know that Sunday will be a tougher game,” Fray said. “To be a good winner, you have to lose and be a good loser. Winning becomes habit and there is a process in trying to achieve that.

“It’s all about building a team spirit and mutual respect for each other. Once they are able to do that, they become a team. We’ve been together a few times now and I have the highest admiration for their discipline and the respect they show to each other. I brought that to the attention of the parents when we had a player/parent meeting and I complimented the parents for having played a part in that.”

Bermuda Under-17 will play their home matches at St John’s Field.

Squad: Antoine Seaman, Cameron Jeffers, Jordan Smith, Jomei Bean-Lindo, Nzari Paynter, Christion Gibbons, Chare Smith, Joseph Basden, Jade Morrissey, Isaiah Richardson, Shakeal Outerbridge, Micah Simons, Charles Trott, Jahcobi Butterfield, Alex Dore, Amari Ebbin, Jalani Richardson, Freeman Lema Jr, Sheldon Caesar, Kacy Greene, Jai-Onni Outerbridge, Alje Richardson, Jahkhari Hollis, San’j Dill.