As a young cricketer working his way up the junior ranks, Bermuda?s wicketkeeper-batsman Dean Minors worshipped at the temple of Ian Healy, watching him religiously on television and marvelling at his hero?s supreme ability.

And this week, aged 36 and with 11 months to go before Bermuda?s date with destiny in Trinidad, he was introduced to the great man on Sunday, with the individual who arranged the meeting revealing that Minors was as excited as a kid in a candy store in the moments leading up to it.

The duo spent close to half an hour talking about the finer points of ?keeping and plan to do so again later this week, while Minors spent the whole of yesterday afternoon sharing a golf cart at Riddell?s Bay with the world record holder for Test dismissals.

?Ian Healy was my idol as a youngster and it has been a real thrill for me to meet him,? said Minors having just walked off the course yesterday evening.

?For me, he took both the standard and profile of wicketkeeping to another level and what impressed me most was how good he was both up to the stumps when Shane Warne was bowling as well as standing back.

?I used to watch him as often as I could and I used to try and copy his style. I?ve read his book as well so to actually meet him and talk to him has been absolutely fantastic.

?What you realise when you meet a lot of the players that are here is that they are genuinely good, down to earth people who are approachable and happy to talk to you. It has been a real pleasure for the whole team to spend time with cricketers who have broken so many records and spent so many years playing cricket at the top level.?

Since returning to the national side in 2004 after several years in the wilderness, Minors has successfully built on his reputation as the most complete wicket-keeper batsman at the Island?s disposal ? making very few mistakes behind the stumps and providing weighty contributions with the bat in the top and lower order ? most tellingly at the ICC Trophy in Ireland.

?I?ve fallen in love with the game all over again,? he said.

?I took a complete break from cricket for a while, but when Gus Logie took over in particular and I saw how interested he was in me and my ability, I decided to get back into it properly and am really enjoying every minute of it.

?I?ve done a huge amount of work on my ?keeping and Gus has helped me a lot with his advice and a huge amount of drills that he has shown me which have improved my footwork and my sharpness.

?I?ve been really concentrating on my batting as well because I want to be considered one of the main batsman in the team and make as many runs as I can wherever I?m asked to bat.?