The Bermuda Cricket Board is not leaving anything to chance when it comes to preparations for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Americas Regional Qualifier, with Kensington Oval head curator Winston Reid on the island to share his expertise on pitches.

Reid, who has been looking after pitches at one of the main stadiums in the Caribbean since 2007, arrived in Bermuda on Sunday with the touring Barbados team and is assisting groundstaff at White Hill Field before shifting his focus to the National Sports Centre’s North Field from today.

“They told me that they had some issues previously with the ICC over some of the pitches,’’ Reid said.

“I’ve just come to give them a few pointers, if they need them, and try to correct that if possible.

“When I look at the soil, it has 55 per cent clay that is indigenous to Bermuda so you've got to work your way out. That means working on it a lot more.

“I'm only here for about a week for this tournament, but we’re looking to do a reciprocal thing. The outfield at the national stadium is really lovely and the pitches are good. They are covered with grass, so it shouldn't take too much time to get them ready.

Allan Douglas Sr, the BCB chairman of high performance and head curator, is excited to have Reid share his expert knowledge with his team of ground personnel.

“The board requested that he comes and everybody is working together on this thing,’’ Douglas said.

“He brings a different sort of flavour and we’re picking up a couple of things such as he watered the pitch on Wednesday evening at the end of the game and rolled it.

“One of the things that’s significant about our clay is that it dries out faster and that’s why we are putting in more water. At the end of the day we just want a nice pitch like we have now out there.

“He does this day in, day out and he makes his living from that. We’re just happy to get in four hours a week. This is his bread and butter, so we've said to the guys to pay attention, listen to him and soak it in.

“He'll be down with us all day on Friday at the stadium and has not made any recommendations yet, but we will pick his brains before he leaves. A lot of the times it’s preference but all we want is to have a good surface.

“The guy is really good and he’s willing to listen, which is what I appreciate about him. It reassures us. He came up on Monday to look at the wicket at North Field and he was amazed to know that it was only on Friday that we had actually cut the pitch given what it looked like.”