They may return home empty handed tomorrow in terms of trophies and victories, but the wealth of experience Bermuda's four members of the Americas Select team will have gained from the Youth World Cup in Sri Lanka is sure to help the Island when it attempts to represent the region in the next competition in two years' time.

That's the view of Bermuda Cricket Board of Control president El James, who was involved in the talks that led to this one-off chance for the Americas to take part.

Next year Bermuda and the rest of the teams in the region will participate in a qualifying round to determine who goes through to the finals. Those involved will include Canada, the United States, the Cayman Islands, Argentina and Belize.

Of the Bermudian members of the 14-man squad in Sri Lanka, OJ Pitcher and Chris Foggo, in particular, enhanced their reputations. Pitcher was consistent with bat and ball throughout. He took eight wickets in the tournament at a cost of 169 runs from a total of 50 overs, with a best of 2-27 in 10 overs against Ireland. He also took 2-31 against 1998 champions England.

He produced two good knocks with the bat, hitting 17 against England and 35 from 41 balls in a stand of 84 with Foggo against Holland.

Opening batsman Foggo hit a splendid 91 in the latter game to go with useful innings' of 16 versus Zimbabwe and 10 against Ireland.

Off-spinner Outerbridge's best spell came against Holland, as he took 1-30 from nine overs. He also scored 15 against South Africa, who play against Bangladesh in the Plate final.

Left-handed batsman Landro Minors hit 17 against the West Indies.

"The one good thing about the Americas team and our four representatives is that with each game you could see them getting better and better and growing in confidence to the point where in the last match against the Netherlands they fell just seven runs short of victory,'' said James.

"All of Bermuda must have been pleased to hear that our own Chris Foggo scored 91 and OJ Pitcher scored 35 and did well with the ball once again.

"When you see these youngsters making a match of it when they are only 15-18-years-old, it's really quite an achievement. What is encouraging is that some of the boys in the Americas squad, including our four, have another two tournaments like this to play.'' And James said that Bermuda would benefit as a team in the qualifying tournament next year.

"I think we will be that much better served with these four already having been there and available to share their ideas and experiences with their local team-mates,'' he said.

The president reckoned that there were probably times when the youngsters felt a bit out of their depth against more seasoned opposition.

But the result against Holland proved they could compete with the best under-19s in the world, said James.

He said the road was always a difficult one for the team, even after they failed to make the Super League stage.

"While we were in the consolation division, because of the rules it wasn't any weaker than the main competition because you had South Africa, who were in our division and who were eliminated when rain spoiled two of their games.

Then you had teams like Bangladash and Zimbabwe, so the competition was great all the way through. We thought we would play some of the weaker teams in the consolation, but it wasn't so.

"Another point we must remember is that our boys played in the only select squad. It's difficult to pick a team of 14 from four different areas and have a well-balanced team.

"I think what we were short of were bowlers -- it was obvious we had a problem bowling teams out, so the blend was not quite as good as some of the other teams.

"The unity was not probably as great because these fellows only got together three days before the tournament. But I would imagine right now they probably feel like a unit after being together for the last two and a half weeks.''