Herbie Bascome has been retained as head coach of the Bermuda cricket team, while recently elected president, Arnold Manders, will remain in charge of the Under-19s.

Bascome, who was appointed as Clay Smith’s replacement in February 2019, has been appointed for 2021, with the national teams involved in three international tournaments this summer. He will be assisted by Irving Romaine, Jeff Richardson and Lorenzo Tucker.

Missing from the senior team coaching set-up is former captain Janeiro Tucker who was an assistant coach under Bascome.

“I would like to have Janeiro [Tucker] involved, but he wanted to work more with the younger players, probably helping with the Under-19s and running the academy,” Manders said.

“He worked with the academy last year and the children really loved him. The young people respect him a lot.

“It would be nice to have another coach with the seniors, so we can spread them out and get a lot more done. Herbie [Bascome] will be the head coach and will be responsible for the fielding and assisted in the bowling by Lorenzo [Tucker] who is the analyst.

“We have three tournaments this year and don’t have a lot of money to bring people in, so we’ll spread it out within the group. Jeff [Richardson] and Irving [Romaine] will assist Herbie with the fielding and will be in charge of the batting.”

Manders, a former senior national coach himself, will have brother Andre Manders, nephew Jekon Edness and Cal Waldron assisting him with the task of preparing the team for international competition this summer.

“Andre was assisting when I was away and Jekon is assisting with the wicketkeepers,” the president said, noting that Russell Richardson will carry on as manager of the team.

“We may bring someone else on board, depending on how much time we have left in order to prepare. I’m happy with the appointments, we just need to get the programme ready for the seniors, while the Under-19s were training until the lockdown.

“There are decent squads for both levels, the seniors and Under-19s, but the challenge is getting them to train. There is nothing we can do right now with the shelter-in-place and the mixing of households, so we encourage the players to do their fitness work.

“The senior team management is developing their programme which should be completed in the next couple of weeks, and when we do get the chance to start training everything will be in place.”

Manders said there is another challenge facing the youth team with 13 members of their squad, including captain Jarryd Richardson, away in school, while another player, spinner Terron Webb, lives in St Kitts.

“The ones overseas are playing, like Jemal Proctor, Dominic Sabir, Logan Jones, Nirobi Smith-Mills, Marcus Scotland, Jamal Stovel and Keiran Richardson,” he explained. “Some have already left, but the problem is they won’t be back until late June, early July, so that only gives us a month to work with them.

“We’ve been together since last summer and they played in the league last year. There are a few things we need to work on and we’ll share that with their schools.

“The advantage is most of them are away and playing cricket. We need them now to work on their fitness, so that it is easier for the coaching staff when we do start.”

Manders, despite the added responsibility of the presidency, decided to continue working with the Under-19s as they prepare for the World Cup Americas Qualifier in the US in August involving the US, Canada and Argentina.

He was coach of the 2008 team that competed in the World Cup under captain Rodney Trott. The team also included the likes of Malachi Jones, Chris Douglas, Regino Smith, Jordan DeSilva, Greg Maybury and Stefan Kelly, with eight of the team going on to represent the senior Bermuda team.

“I coached the senior national team, which was good as well, but I think I can make more impact working at the grassroots level, preparing the Under-19s to move into the senior team,” Manders added.

“I thought about it and thought about it [stepping down], but I couldn’t do it. I built a relationship with them. I’ll take them to this one and we’ll see what happens after that.

“They remind me a lot of the last group that qualified for the World Cup in Malaysia in 2008.”

The Bermuda Cricket Board is certain to miss next weekend’s planned start to the season, with clubs not even training after being advised to cease because of the recent spike in Covid-19 cases.