Tournament director Billy MacDermott is expecting cricket of the highest standard when the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Americas Regional Qualifier gets under way today.

With a spot in next year’s World Cup at stake and with the matches streamed live to a global audience, the largest tournament in the region is expected to thrill those at the ground and beyond, with MacDermott expecting to see quality displays by all four teams.

“It’s our biggest tournament in the region at associate level and we’re aiming for highest standards,’’ MacDermott said.

“We’re actually willing to see the teams perform at the best standards and obviously the quality of the cricket is going to be our main selling point for the region.

“We need to prove that we’re up there and the team that goes through to the World Cup will be competitive.

“This is the first time it’s going to be streamed here with six cameras so that’s part of the improvements the ICC is trying for, to improve the quality of streaming for people around the world to be able to follow in a proper way.

“It used to be three cameras and now we've gone to six. This is a global decision from ICC to try get all the pathway events properly streamed so that people can follow.”

MacDermott has commended the Bermuda Cricket Board for the hard work done in preparing for the event since he was last on the island August, with the ICC Americas regional development officer pleased at the amount of effort poured into getting the two venues, North Field and White Hill Field, ready for the tournament.

“We knew that the Bermuda Premier League was going to be played in between my last visit and the tournament,’’ MacDermott said.

“That was going to give us a good idea of how the wickets were going to play and everybody was satisfied with the way they played.

“When I was there, you can actually see the hours have been put in You can tell that the wickets have been used, they were worked on and everything looks in place to get going on Saturday.

“We’re all set and I’d like to take the opportunity to thank the big team at the BCB, led by Cal Blankendal, for all their hard work.

“I’ve been to the venues inspection and there was a big team, which I was glad to see because it’s a very hard job. There are a lot of hours put in behind the scenes and hopefully it can pay off and we see a high-quality event.”

With four teams in action, MacDermott was keen to make sure that fixtures were allocated fairly to ensure that no team was given an unfair advantage.

“It’s a double round-robin and if you go through the fixtures every team plays the same amount of games in the morning and the afternoon,’’ he said.

“We tried to be fair to everyone and to accommodate the hosts as much as we can. They’re playing their first game in the morning, but it’s a Saturday so people shouldn't be having problems to get there.

“On the last day, they’re playing the closing game against Canada, which is a big game an it’s going to be important for the Bermuda team to feel the home support and try to make the most of what they call home advantage.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get a direct qualification spot from this kind of event and being at home, it doesn't get any better than that. If they finish first, they’re in the World Cup and that should get the island behind the team.”

MacDermott leads an important team of ICC officials for the tournament with former West Indies pace bowler Reon King named as match referee for the event and Bermuda’s Emmerson Carrington, Jacqueline Williams, of Jamaica, and the United States pair of Vijaya Mallela and Jermaine Lindo performing umpiring duties.