Cal Blankendal, the Bermuda Cricket Board executive director, has expressed his appreciation to key sponsors after the ICC Men's T20 World Cup Americas Regional Qualifier.

While success may not have come on the field, the financial support provided by Keep Bermuda Beautiful and the Bermuda Economic Development Corporation allowed the ICC event to go smoothly off the field, and Blankendal was delighted with the partnerships.

“KBB and BEDC came on as sponsors for the BPL and ICC tournament,’’ Blankendal said.

“BEDC only came on for the ICC tournament but it was good to have both of them involved with the event.

“It’s good to have them here as new sponsors and more importantly also to grow the off-the-field relationships to make sure that cricket plays a role in keeping Bermuda clean and sustainable through recycling and assisting the BEDC with small businesses to increase revenue through partnerships for future events.

“It’s just a pleasure to see local-based entities working together to help the sports community grow. If we can continue that, in addition to other partners, we’re happy, so hats off to BEDC and KBB and may we continue to work together for many years.

“We want to get KBB into our clubs and regular league games so we can sustain our communities, recycle to keep Bermuda clean and reduce our carbon footprint.”

Traci Burgess, the executive director of KBB, feels there is a need for the charity to continually engage with the BCB..

“KBB and the Bermuda Cricket Board forged a partnership several months ago,’’ Burgess said.

“We’re helping the BCB develop their sustainability goals and we also partnered on a greener waste management plan for the BPL tournament in early September as well as the ICC tournament.

“The sustainability partnership is supported by Aspen and they have been generous in allowing us to raise awareness and provide the necessary resources for the successful execution of the plan.

“Aspen’s partnership and their support of the green events waste management plan has provided financial resources in order for us to be able to run public awareness campaigns, the education and the public messaging as well as the advertising.

“We had trash and recycling bins all around the field, both at White Hill and North Field, with all spectators, players, and vendors encouraged to reduce the amount of waste that they generated.

“We’re looking at sustainability goals throughout the local league and we partnered with St George’s for Cup Match. We did a green Cup Match this year, which was pretty successful and we also partnered with Bailey’s Bay and Eastern Counties Cricket Association for all three of the Eastern Counties games this year.”

The BEDC is a joint venture between Bermuda’s banks and the Government designed to actively assist small businesses and its director of communication and development, Jamillah Lodge, was delighted to partner with the BCB.

“When asked to be a sponsor, we jumped at the opportunity,’’ she told The Royal Gazette.

“It’s important for the BEDC to support the community. At the heart of our job is to encourage the development of an entrepreneurship ecosystem. We consider a lot of the sports clubs on the island as part of that ecosystem.

“For us, being able to partner with the Bermuda Cricket Board to help them to put on this international event is in line with our goal to assist sports clubs to become economically viable.

“Our goal was to be able to utilise this as a platform to show our involvement in the community this way.

“This is just the start of that partnership and we’re really excited by the fact that Bermuda has reached the level that it has cricket-wise. We would love to see them to compete at the world stage and it made sense for us to support them.