Bermuda will be looking to make a positive start at the Cayman Basketball Festival, which begins in the Cayman Islands tomorrow.

The Bermuda team are taking part in a round-robin tournament along with Port Arthur, Texas, and host nation Cayman.

Each team will play each other twice. Trinidad & Tobago was also scheduled to compete but withdrew, forcing organisers to change the format to a double round-robin instead to ensure the remaining teams still get a quota of four games under their belt. Bermuda will face Cayman in their opener tomorrow.

They will then meet Port Arthur and Cayman again tomorrow before taking on the Texan team in their final match on Saturday. Bermuda have travelled to the Caribbean island with a 12-strong team comprising Jalen Currin, Sam Darrell, Mical Hardtman, Seth Hardtman, Eric Lambert, Christian Liyanage, Amaury Majors, Malik McGhie, Jorel Smith, Jaden Springer, Kenai Stowe and Keishun Swan.

They are being accompanied by Kent Tacklyn, the head coach, and Tim Trott, who is serving in the dual role as assistant coach and manager.

Tacklyn has high expectations of his team who will be led on court by the experience of senior players Liyanage, Smith, Swan and Mical Hardtman.

Wanda Bodden, a pastor in Port Arthur, Texas, started the tournament in 2016.

She calls the event “Bringing Back the Glory” tournament and organised it because of her city’s close relationship with Cayman. The two jurisdictions were dubbed sisters in the 1980s because so many Caymanians, especially seamen, had migrated to Port Arthur.