Clay Smith remains optimistic about Bermuda’s chances of moving out of Division Four of the World Cricket League despite a less than stellar start to the domestic season.

Smith said he thought national team players were “performing admirably” for their clubs, and said that performances showed that hard work in pre-season was paying off.

The Bermuda coach also denied that the lack of runs teams scored in the Twenty20 League, or the 115 extras and 67 wides the top four teams combined to bowl on Sunday, was cause for concern.

“Some may look at this past weekend and think that, but not me,” Smith said.

“A lot of people in Bermuda tend to look at our cricket from a negative point of view. However, as a national coach I am very positive thinking and I want that to rub off on my players.”

Add in the Western Stars games against Willow Cuts, and the island’s top-flight teams conceded a total of 153 runs in extras on Sunday, with 92 wides.

Bailey’s Bay may have beaten Southampton Rangers with ease, bowling the defending champions out for 102 in a 143-run win, but nearly a quarter of those runs came in extras.

Cleveland, the team Smith coaches domestically, were the biggest offenders in their 178-run hammering at the hands of St David’s, bowling 24 wides in the 33 extras they conceded.

Dismissed for 113, Cleveland were helped towards their total by the 28 extras the home side bowled.

“This weekend there were 92 wides during the three games, but roughly just 15 of them came from [national] squad bowlers, which shows that the work we have been doing during the preseason is paying off,” Smith said.

Smith also said he was not overly concerned by the low-scoring nature of the T20 League, where the 148 Rangers scored against Cleveland was the highest score in the competition this season.

However, Rangers also struggled to chase down 81 to beat Western Stars, while the 101 Bailey’s Bay made in their 12-run win over Willow Cuts was indicative of the rest of the performances.

On the bright side for Smith, Tre Manders, who barring injury will almost certainly be a member of the squad that travels to Los Angeles, made 33 of Bay’s total. It is performances such as this, plus a couple of other factors outside of his control, specifically bowler-friendly pitches and slow outfields, that gives Smith his optimism.

“Obviously, we are not going to see massive scores of 180 plus, but I am looking for specific things from the national squad players,” he said.

“The batsmen know we are working on reducing the amount of dot balls that we bat, thus acquiring more singles

“For the most part the national squad players are performing admirably and will only get stronger as the season goes on. Our expectations remain the same for the Division Four tournament. We aspire to get promoted into Division Three, but at the very least remain in Division Four.

“One only has to look at Leicester City and see that anything is possible in sports, especially if you put your mind to it and have total buy in from the players.”