Leaving out a big-name player from any squad is always a difficult thing to do, so no matter that we should be doing all we can to sharpen our focus on the players who will represent Bermuda in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Regional Qualifier, it would be wrong and disrespectful not to lead off with a word on Malachi Jones.

Everyone knows what Jones brings to the game at national and club level, and you can see that from the public reaction to him not being included in the final 14 for the tournament. The selection meeting involved long discussions. I wouldn’t say it was purely about him, but a long part of the meeting was about him and him being in the team. And it was a lot of healthy back and forth. And in the end, for me it was a very, very, very, very tough decision to leave him out. But, in the end, that’s what the selectors and the coaching staff went with.

We are aware of the situation with his mum, but I can’t say that played a factor in our decision. Nor did it seem like it was affecting his cricket. He says he is going to be at the first game against Canada, a big one, and I have no doubt Mally will be pushing hard for us to be successful. He may not be part of the squad but he is still one of us.

Otherwise, we’re very happy with the group we have settled on. It’s a youthful squad, but also with some experience. Many of us have played a lot of cricket for Bermuda from a young age, so it makes it a nice balance of youth and experience. There are a few of us in there who were playing in Bermuda last time we reached for the Global Qualifier in 2019 and who were in Antigua last time in 2021 when we didn’t qualify. There are many moments in games and experiences in games that we can all fall back on to hopefully use, and use in a positive way, to try and the desired outcome in this tournament. Overall, I’m happy with the team, happy with the inclusions and looking forward to playing with them.

Back-up wicketkeeper Jarryd Richardson and reserve batter Alje Richardson are representative of the more youthful look to the group. Jarryd came into the team for the tour to Argentina as a replacement originally, but during that tournament and since coming back home over the summer, he has more than impressed myself, the coaches and the selectors. That wasn’t a hard pick to keep him in the team, as he’s done all the right things — scored runs when asked and he has done well with the gloves for his club team. For me, that was a no-brainer. Alje is a very late inclusion, but he is someone the coach has kept his eye on throughout the summer, and here recently he must have put a bit of glint in the coach’s eyes. He’s invited him down and he’s included him in the 14. It just goes to show that if you’re performing, if you’re doing all the right things, you should get recognised.

It’s now time to get on with this tournament. We have waited a long time to cross swords again with Panama, Cayman Islands and, of course, Canada. We’ve hit the ground running with training this week with everyone together all day every day in the hotel. So the message is there, and obviously everyone knows that every game is important — there are no “warm-ups”, no easing into the tournament to get yourself going. We’ve known for six or seven months since we left Argentina that the first game is going to be important, no matter who we played. I’m actually quite happy that it is Canada; playing them fresh, obviously all of us have been playing cricket at home all summer. All of us have also played at White Hill. We should know our home conditions very well. A few of the Canada players have been here before and seen how the wickets are, but it’s always an adjustment, no matter how many times you’ve been to a country. You’ve always got to adapt and get used to conditions. Hopefully, that can favour us, a bit of home-field advantage and things like the crowd and the fans getting behind us. I have a really good feeling that result will be very positive for us.

The home fans will play an important part for us — almost like a twelfth man. But we need to be mindful not to let the emotion of that support push us over the top; that’s part of the challenge. International cricket is always under the microscope with livestreams, YouTube streams, and so on. Everything is on footage. This is not just with cricket; international sport, period, is intense. Emotions do get involved, but normally you see the teams or the players who can control their emotions the best are the ones that come out on top. It’s something that we have looked at and we have psych sessions leading into the tournament to help. We are trying to do the right things and are moving in the right direction to make sure that we’re as well-prepared as we can be.

That means that, as much as some would like to fixate on Canada and what they can do, our focus has to be strictly on us. They’ve got about five or six players who have been here before, but I’m more concerned about what my team are doing and how we’re preparing. I always think that if we prepare the best and we do all the right things and perform to our potential, the other team is not a worry. Obviously, we’ve had a little bit of a chat about them, but whenever we’ve got together it has always been about our skills and what we do best. We are looking forward to the challenge of playing against them and the other teams in that aspect. But right now, we’re solely focused on us and what we can do to improve ourselves or make sure that we’re nailed on for when those key moments come in games.

• Delray Rawlins was talking to Dexter Smith