This week our Under-18 squad will be travelling to play in the America’s Under-18 Match Play Tournament in Fort Lauderdale. Bermuda youngsters will play USA and Canada’s youth teams in a double round-robin tournament, which means playing each team twice.This tournament is a warm-up for the Americas Region Qualifiers next year, as the same teams will compete and only one team will earn a ticket to the Under-19 World Cup to be played the following year.The focus now has to be on this team and how we can maximise their improvement over the next few years. This group has some talented players but the reality is that only a handful of them will be able to go on and produce at the next level. Currently, David Moore, the senior national coach has been putting the boys through their paces, which should provide them with a firm base to be successful at the tournament and hopefully the future.Bermuda is fortunate to have a few of their overseas players available, which should give the team a tremendous boost. Joshua Gilbert will most likely skipper the team as he has been playing overseas in England with Acle CC and is also a member of the Bermuda national senior squad. Other notable players playing overseas are St. George’s duo Onias Bascome (Warwickshire) and Christian Burgess (Lincolnshire), both two outstanding players with so much to offer. Not to put any added pressure on the two youngsters, but much will be expected of them at this tournament and I do think they have what it takes to produce the goods.Unfortunately, Bermuda won’t be at their ultimate best for this tournament as Bermuda’s most prolific, exciting and talented youngster Kamau Leverock will miss out due to school commitments. This will be a big blow for Bermuda as Leverock has just started to come into his own with the bat and ball after a difficult start in England.However, it is good to see a young man also realising that there is life after sports and education is of the utmost importance. While Kamau will be missing out on travelling with Bermuda he will get a second opportunity to once again train and play with Sussex 2nd X1, with the hope of impressing their coaching staff.As for the rest of the Bermuda team, there are some outstanding players on the local shores who much will be expected of. Young Tre’ Manders is one who has had an outstanding start to the season, but obviously anytime you play for your country it is always a step up in quality. It will be interesting to see just how he does as he is another youth player who is heading in the right direction to supply Bermuda with the quality needed for the future.Another young batsman looking to impress will be Shaquille Jones, Somerset’s explosive left-hander. I have now seen this young cricketer a few times and every time I watch him he impresses me more and more. He appears fearless, which is a crucial ingredient to have when playing international cricket. How he will manage playing at the next level will gauge where he is at and he will be able to build on the talent he already has.With Kamau Leverock absent, the two players looking to lead the pace attack are Seth Campbell and Zeko Burgess. Having watched Seth a few times this season I have been really impressed with his pace and focus. He appears to be improving rapidly and has led Western Stars’ bowling attack.Zeko, on the other hand, has just come back from school and injury and hasn’t played as much, but if he gets into a rhythm he will be very dangerous. He has pace beyond his years and is a player to look out for in the future. Together, these two can form a formidable opening bowling attack that could cause USA and Canada lots of trouble.Alex Dore, Christian Gibbons-Wade and Delray Rawlins are all Under-15 players playing in an older age group, which speaks volumes of their ability. How these three young men will feature in an older age group could be the difference between Bermuda winning and losing. Although the quality of cricket in Bermuda at the senior level is on the decline, playing at our domestic senior level at age 15 has given them good experience to take with them to this tournament.In addition we have William White who is a good back-up wicketkeeper and early order bat who has the passion and enthusiasm to be successful. Kwasi James is a good swing bowler who with his size could get extra bounce out of the normally dead Florida wickets. Kamal Easton, is a bag of potential. How good he becomes will be determined by how hard he works and how much he really wants to succeed. Lastly, young Jordan Smith is a cricket fanatic, who will be on this tour mostly for experience, but remember the name as he is a cricketer for the future.All in all, this tour is a necessity for the growth of our cricket. There is no substitute for international exposure, plain and simple. The cricket lovers will be following the progress hoping to be inspired by the group of youngsters and put some hope back into our senior expectations.These are the future players of Bermuda and while many say winning is not important, I beg to differ in some cases. We must teach our players that when we step onto the field representing our country it is about pride and winning is everything. Too often we sit and say winning isn’t important because we are just developing but if we are not careful then players learn to lose.The mentality switches to accepting that losing is ok, setting us up for losing to become a bad habit. Our national team players are currently exercising this habit and we have to start somewhere to break it. Therefore, we must now teach this new breed of players that winning can also be a habit and so we look forward to winning some games, so that we as a country can have something positive to look forward to in the future.Quote of the week: “Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.” Lou Holtz