Six international teams will be hoping to give the game an impetus in their countries by making a mark in the ICC World Cricket League Division 4 which gets underway at the Woodley Park in Los Angeles, as the United States of America plays host to such an event for the first time.
The three grounds – Severn, Wright and Wong – will see the teams fight it out on a league format with the final placings decided in playoffs on the last day of the October 29th to November 5th tournament.
The top two sides from among the competing teams – Bermuda, Denmark, Italy, Jersey, Oman and the USA - will advance to the ICC WCL Division 3 while the bottom two will drop to Division 5 in the system of continuous promotion and relegation between divisions. The third and fourth teams will remain in Division 4.
The Division 2 in this cycle allows teams a chance to qualify for the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018. The top two teams from Division 2 will join the top four sides from the ICC World Cricket League Championship and the bottom-four sides from the MRF Tyres ICC ODI Team Rankings in the 2018 Qualifier.
Bermuda captain Oliver Pitcher (Junior) too stressed on the importance of the tournament.
“This tournament has significant meaning not just for myself and the team but for cricket in Bermuda as a whole. Qualifying and being promoted puts us one step closer to more funding for the development of the sport at the senior and junior levels. It also puts us one step closer to reaching our main goal of repeating what we achieved in 2005, qualifying for the biggest stage in our sport, the ICC Cricket World Cup (2007),” said Pitcher.
“The only concern I have in the back of my mind is the conditions of the grounds that we will be playing on. There have not been any international matches played at the ground in the past so we have no idea what to expect,” said Pitcher, who picked young all-rounders Delray Rawlins and Kamau Leverock among those to watch out for from his team.
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