Before the start of the North American Cup in Cayman Islands on Saturday, Bermuda coach Cal Waldron has spoken of the positive impact brought by West Indies coach Andre Coley.

The team has this week benefited from the expertise of Coley, who is working with Waldron as a high-performance consultant during the inaugural tournament.

“There has been some good interaction with the players,” Waldron said.

“Overall, it’s been productive and it’s great having him with us. He brings a different dimension to the table so everything has been great with a lot of dialogue between him and the players.

“His presence gives us an opportunity to look at and pursue things differently. He’s providing information and insight as we go along, so the players know what they've to do.

“I wouldn’t say the information he’s provided tips the scales in our favour when we get into the tournament. We still have to go out there and execute what needs to be executed.”

Before starting the five-team tournament, Bermuda played two warm-up matches, defeating Cayman A by eight wickets on Wednesday before seeing off a Cayman President’s XI by nine runs on Thursday.

In the second encounter, captain Terryn Fray followed up his unbeaten 40 runs from the previous day with 31 off 27 balls, while Delray Rawlins compiled 22 for Bermuda to post 111 for nine in 20 overs.

Zeko Burgess, Dominic Sabir and Rawlins picked up two wickets apiece as Bermuda restricted the President’s XI to 102 for eight.

“The performance was good in the first match, we got outside into a game situation,” the coach said.

“We had to quickly adjust and assess the conditions. It went well and at the end of the day, it’s more to it than just winning.

“We had to look at some of the things that we’re trying to accomplish in the match and throughout this tournament.

“In the second warm-up match, we looked to make some adjustments with personnel and tactics. We are trying to come out of this tournament better prepared for the qualifiers.”

While Bermuda reached their target in the thirteenth over on Wednesday, they opted to finish the 20 overs to give the batters more time in the middle but Waldron was disheartened that some of his players did not make the most of the chance to get accustomed to the conditions at Jimmy Powell Oval.

“Rather than just pass the score, we gave the opportunity to everybody to bat,” he said.

“I was disappointed by some of the displays by the batters and that’s the learning curve that we need to be aware of.

“We had the opportunity to play a match and get batting practice. Some took advantage of it and some didn’t.”

Bermuda start their campaign against a tough opponent in Canada on Saturday, with the host nation waiting for Fray and his team-mates on Sunday before they clash with the United States 24 hours later.

Bermuda will play their final group encounter against Bahamas on Wednesday, with the semi-finals following two days later and the final taking place next Saturday.