ICC High Performance Manager Andy Pick was in Bermuda on the weekend to help the Bermuda Cricket Board to continue to move forward with various programmes.Pick, based in Canada, arrived in Bermuda last Thursday and departed yesterday after holding discussions relating to the senion national team, the Under-19s and the national academy programme which is regarded as one of the best among the associate countries.“We looked at national senior team’s preparation plans, review of systems, assessments, physical and tactical performances, Under-19 preparation and post-mortem for the event (World Cup qualifiers in Canada) that just happened, looking forward to how we prepare for Under- 19 World Cups and how the academy runs and what are we trying to get out of each age group,” explained the Board’s CEO Neil Speight as he outlined Pick’s visit.Pick, who has been the ICC’s High Performance Manager for four years, is a regular visitor to Bermuda, having come here in 1990 with the England A team as a fast bowler. He was recently appointed as USACA High Performance Manager in a move aimed at helping the USA form a more professional administrative cricket structure and will split his workload between the ICC Americas office in Toronto and the USACA’s headquarters in Florida.Assisting countries in the Americas like Bermuda to develop their cricketing structure is part of Pick’s mission.“David Moore is a top level coach but he isn’t here anymore and I’m conscious of trying to help Bermuda make sure that, now that David is not here with his knowledge and experience that the good programmes that are in place stay in place,” explained Pick.“If they need tweaking to move forward then we try to do that. The game is changing all the time and the ICC are changing qualification criteria for different tournaments all the time so it is essential that all programmes are aligned to qualification for global tournaments.“Now that David has just left it is a matter of looking forward to the next two-year cycle for both the Under-19s and World Cricket League and making sure that plans are in place to hopefully see Bermuda qualify for the Under-19 World Cup and get promoted in the World Cricket League.“The T20 is coming up and the preparation for that is important and we look to that and other things that Neil has talked about.“Bermuda has a very detailed programme that is highly regarded and probably the best programme that we have in the Americas, for sure.”Recently, Pick was the coach of the ICC Americas team that competed in the West Indies Under-19 tournament in St Kitts. The team contained four Bermudians — Kamau Leverock, Christian Burgess, Tre Manders and Delray Rawlins — and all played key roles in the team.“We finished sixth out of seventh, beat the Leeward Islands and tied with the Windward Islands,” said Pick. “From our point of view it is not about how many games we win, but about players who grow up in the Americas and can build a reputation for themselves in Americas cricket and then go out into the wider cricketing world to get a real feel for where they sit ability wise.”The Americas team came up against a higher level of competition in the Caribbean, but Pick said the players learned some important lessons.Batting against spin bowling was one area that the Americas players came up short, Pick admitted.“It was a challenge, I said to the players on a number of occasions that the best players of spin either sweep or use their feet,” he stressed.“If a spinner can bowl exactly where he wants then it is the length where you can sweep or go down the wicket to. If you can’t do either then he will dominate you and you will be stuck in the crease and it will be difficult to score.“Tre Manders scored 60-odd against the Windward Island and was instrumental in us tying that game as he and a lad from Canada put on 140 for the fourth wicket and that partnership was probably the only example of the batsmen manipulating the spinners around that we produced the whole week,” said Pick.“Christian kept wicket in all the games and I’ve been impressed by Christian this summer. He was by no means a definite choice going up to Toronto but he was comfortably first choice ‘keeper after seeing him ‘keep. He continued to keep well in the West Indies but I don’t think we saw the best of his batting. He can bat but was exposed at a different level.“Delray is a talent without any shadow of a doubt and he has got a little bit of something in him which means he is not frightened to take chances which can turn a game.“I think he’s got a base level of natural talent which, if he continues to develop it, will see him become a very, very good cricketer. I had a meeting with him this morning and told him that when people ask what he does, he needs to describe himself as a spin bowling all-rounder because he can bat. In time he could be batting at five, six or seven.“Kamau had a mixed tournament. He suffered a little with illness which kept him out a few games. He struggled batting-wise and from our point of view made the same mistakes each time he batted. That was disappointing having had Kamau in groups over the last two or three years.”Added Pick: “Christian played them all, six, Tre and Delray played four or five and Kamau played three. The four of them occupy the spine of the team, the wicketkeeper who can bat, a spin bowler who can bat, an opening bowler who can bat and an out-and-out batter.“Now you have to keep them engaged and developing and playing good cricket.”