The Bermuda cricket team will get the chance to take on some of the region’s top side in the North American Cup.

The tournament, which will take place in Cayman Islands between April 18 to 27, will feature Bermuda taking on Bahamas, Cayman, Canada and the United States in preparation for the ICC T20 World Cup Americas Qualifier Regional Final later in the year.

Cal Waldron, the Bermuda coach, is excited over the opportunity to face Canada, who will be the main opposition in the final stage of World Cup qualifying, and the United States, who are already through to the 2026 T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.

“We’re going to take the North American Cup seriously,” Waldron said.

“It’s the competition to gauge where we are and what we need to do to be at the level of cricket we want to get at. We want to be as competitive as possible.

“We’re playing the top two teams in our region with at least four matches guaranteed. We can only get better through playing more, and it’s good that we go out there and compete.

“Everybody involved knows what’s at stake, from the North American Cup to the World Cup qualifiers. They know what we need to do for us to get to the World Cup.”

Given the importance of the competition and with winter conditions not allowing for much outdoor activity in Bermuda, Waldron says the Bermuda Cricket Board is exploring ways of getting some game time before the tournament.

“It’s winter time so we’re still indoors,” Waldron said.

“We’ll continue with the fitness and skill drills until we’re able to get outside, get on the field and play some matches.

“That might not even be in Bermuda, but that’s really up to the board and the high-performance committee how we go about that.

“It will be April and probably the beginning of the season for us. We’ll try to play as much cricket before we go out there and that might mean leaving early to play practice matches somewhere to get us back into cricket playing mode.”