UAE tour offers hope for the future, says Moore
Never satisfied, but still delighted with the outcome of his team’s Dubai training camp, Bermuda head coach David Moore has rated the trip nine out of ten in terms of its success.The squad arrived back on the Island last night, and will now step up their preparations for the World Cricket League Division Two qualifiers in April.With 14 places available, nearly 30 players are battling it out to make the trip back to Dubai in a couple of months time, the trip was about getting the players used to the conditions, and seeing who might make that final squad.“For me it’s (the camp) a nine out of ten for everything that we have achieved, plus beating UAE, when they’re in season, and we’re out of season,” said Moore. “So it’s a nine out of ten in that, obviously you can never be fully satisfied, so there are always things that we need to improve on.“However the nine out of ten also comes from the opportunity to be able to do stuff, and get outdoors, and we haven’t wasted that opportunity, which is great.”A largely successful tour, which saw Bermuda win four of their five games, has given the Australian some indication of what his side might be. But there is a long time between now and April, and he said no one had played themselves out of a spot.“From a training point of view this has been an excellent opportunity that has been provided to the players and myself by the board, and so it’s now for us to take this back now (home and work on it).“It’s obviously given me a clear understanding of the capabilities of different players in different situations. It’ll make it a little bit easier to select the side (for April), but there are still going to be some very disappointed people, and competition is still very stiff.“No one has played themselves out of it.”One of Moore’s main messages from the 11 days the team was in Dubai was that win, or lose, their training games he didn’t want the results to mask the deficiencies in the side. And in that sense he feels there are plenty of things that need to be worked on.“I always get disappointed and dejected when things don’t go to plan,” said Moore. “There have been some things that have been great. There are things that we can write off as just being out of nick and a bit rusty, and there are things that are more about attention to detail that we certainly need to address.“The sundries worry me, the wides and that sort of stuff, because that’s not necessarily because we haven’t been outside. By the fourth game, plus three bowling sessions, we should have been much better.”Beating the UAE senior team in the first game between the two sides only re-enforced Moore’s belief that the team has the ability to compete with their peers. But he still feels that there are three key areas that must be improved if those sorts of results are going to become a regular occurrence.“Discipline, the ability to read the game, and the ability to stay in the contest,” said Moore. “They are the three things that, because of the ability and talent, there is obviously technical stuff that we’ve got to work on, but those three areas are very important.“We didn’t give up in the fourth game, it wasn’t looking promising for a while, but we didn’t give up, which was absolutely fantastic, and that’s what we’ve got to be able to do, is to stick with it and not allow ourselves to be bullied out of a contest, and I think we were right up there.” The camp has also allowed Moore and his staff to cement their plans for April, and come up with a plan of what needs to be done to ensure the best chance of success. One thing is arriving early to combat the obvious jetlag the squad will suffer from.“The camp’s been a wonderful opportunity. We need to come here again early (for the qualifiers),” said Moore. “We know now that the jetlag is considerable with an eight-hour time difference, and we are also playing three sides that effectively have no time difference to worry about.“UAE are the home team, so they’ve got nothing to worry about, Uganda is one hour, and Namibia is two hours, so we’re the ones on the back foot when it comes to that.“So we really need to prepare and make sure we get here in enough time to fight off the effects of jetlag and be ready to go.”