Bermuda cricket coach Cal Waldron has applauded the players for displaying great commitment at the ICC T20 World Cup Americas Sub-Regional Qualifier in Argentina.

Waldron was pleased with how the players stuck together to go undefeated throughout the tournament.

“We had players that actually worked for the cause,” Waldron told The Royal Gazette. “They understood the game plan, they put in the work to achieve set goals.

“The team spirit was great, everybody bonded well. Everybody was on board and they were happy, there were no moments that we had to worry about somebody not fulfilling their commitment.

“The mood was good, we had everyone playing for Bermuda. We had no egos to deal with, where any particular person felt that they were better than the other.

“If you look at the player-of-the-match award, it was shared around. There was no particular person in the Bermuda team who won the award more than once, and that contributed to the team’s success.

“The players made it easier for me to do my job, they understood that not everyone was going to play every game.”

On the chances for players who were not in Argentina finding their way into the team for next year’s regional final — likely to be played in Canada in September — the coach stated that they were not shutting anyone out.

“There’s the next round, who knows who is going to come and who’s not going to be available,” he said.

“As long as everybody is for the cause, that’s the main thing. At the end of the day, people have to commit to executing the game plan.

“We’ll look at how we can strengthen this team. We definitely need to improve some things and we’re not going to exclude those that were not part of the team in Argentina.

“Once we get back we’ll sit down with the high-performance committee chairman, coaching staff and the captain.

“If any names come up, we’ll ask if they’re interested. If they are, then the opportunity is there for them to commit and be a team player. If they can’t commit, then we just move on with the group that we have got.

“I’m assuming it’s going to be a squad of 14 for the next round or it could be 16, so there might be an opportunity for extra people. Again, those two extra people have to be good enough or want to commit to make the team.

“If it’s down to 14, we have to look at the conditions. We have to analyse the situation to see which players are best suited for those conditions, and then make the changes.”

Once players and coaching staff get out of the festive mode, Waldron is looking to start preparations for the regional final sometime next month.

“Even if we just get the guys together and continue with the fitness until we can actually determine the outdoor sessions,” he said.

“It’s winter time in Bermuda, so we’re not going to get many outdoor sessions. The main thing is keeping the guys together, even reviewing the games that we played to go over the data from an analytical point of view.

“We should be able to get together by the middle of January to put together a calendar of events for everybody to understand where we are, and commit to it.”

The coach mentioned areas the team needs to work on in the coming months, as they seek to qualify for the 2026 T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.

“We want to continue working on the fitness and get it a little higher,” he added. “That was a key part where we outran teams.

“When we realised that the fields were humongous, we knew we were not going to hit boundaries, so we had to run the singles.

“We also have to work on understanding the match a little better to know where we are at certain stages, and keep the momentum in our favour.

“I think as we go further, the pitches will get better. The ball may come on a little quicker to the batters, so it’s always that mental side of the game that players can assess the conditions a lot faster.

“We’ll also have to take a look at Canada, to see what games they’ve played and what their par scores are. We outscored the teams that were behind us in this tournament, so we know what their par scores are.

“We want to see how we can convert the scores we had in Argentina to over 200. That’s the preparation of getting better, to see what can be done to increase our scoring rate.”

Meanwhile, all-rounder Dominic Sabir was awarded the fielder-of-the-tournament accolade. The 21-year-old finished with nine catches in the nine-team event.

On Sunday, Sabir executed probably the best catch of the tournament off left-arm spinner Derrick Brangman’s bowling to remove Bahamas captain Marc Taylor. Fielding at long-on, the Bermudian caught the ball and, before his momentum took him over the boundary rope, popped it up in the air to complete the dismissal once he stepped back on to the field.

The squad returns to the island this afternoon at 1.45pm.