The BCB’s Academy tour of England will have long-lasting impact on the Under-13 and Under-15 players on that trip, says coach Grant Smith who accompanied the youngsters on the two-week trip.Smith says some of the players are already talking about pursuing a career as a professional cricketer, having now been exposed to the professional set-up in England. And Smith is predicting that several players from the Academy will go on to represent Bermuda at the senior national level in the next few years.“I can see from this whole tour, if they stick with it, probably seven or eight boys who can definitely move onto the national level,” said Smith who was accompanied on the trip by manager Cal Waldron and under-13s coach Reggie Tucker.“For the majority of them this was their first overseas cricket tour and no matter what country we went to it was going to be a huge learning curve for them. Going to England and knowing the different weather conditions, we were monitoring the conditions even before we left Bermuda and tried to explain to the boys some of the things to expect. At their first match the sun was out nice and bright like a Bermuda summer day but from then on the weather changed and was rainy and cool which was typical English summer conditions.”Two players, Alex Dore and Christian Gibbons-Wade, toured England with Southampton Rangers last year and knew what to expect of the conditions. Dore struck 48 in the rain-hit match against Slaughter and Rissington which Bermuda won on run rate.“He is a player to watch for the future, he had some outstanding performances,” said the coach of Dore who captained the Under-15s in their first and last matches. “The 48 doesn’t tell the whole story, he also did reasonably well with his left-arm spin.”Dore, who also toured Florida this summer with the Bermuda Under-18s and struck 93 for Rangers against St David’s upon his return, is one of the players with aspirations of playing professionally in England.“One of the highlights of the tour for me was when I made 48, when the team needed to bat and I went out there and put my head down and batted,” said Dore.“The conditions were all right but it was something that we weren’t used to so we had to adjust to the cold weather. If the ball hit your hands it would sting more because of the cold weather. It takes a bit of getting used to but it is pretty good playing in England because there are a lot of teams to play against and they are not just there to make up the numbers, they are there to win.”Dore has an interesting background, his parents are from the Caribbean (Jamaica and St Kitts) and he was born in the US but grew up in Bermuda and has aspirations of playing Cup Match for Somerset some day. But for now his main ambition is to geta professional contract with a county team in England. Other highlights for the youngsters was visiting the Cotswold Cricket Museum and seeing all the cricket memorabilia and visiting Lords and Trent Bridge.“In a nutshell it was all a good learning experience,” said Dore.Smith also singled out the likes of Davin Dill, Yanji Durham and Under-15 player Joseph Basden, the son of Dexter Basden, for their performances during the tour, but says all the youngsters gained something from the tour.“Davin Dill was outstanding for practically the whole tour,’ said coach Smith. “In fact in our first match (Kimberley Institute) we took on a team who had a couple of older boys, 16 or 17, and one boy, the opening bowler, was quite quick and Davin scored 67 not out as an opening bat. He and Alex Dore opened the innings and put on 56.”“Another name that stood out was Joseph Basden who had some outstanding performances. He has some good potential, along with Nzari Paynter in the under Under-13s. They were all quite eager to learn more. They chatted with opposition players quite a bit and formed friendships with them.”The captaincy of the two teams was rotated so as to give different players the chance to lead the team. “With the captaincy we wanted to see how each boy would handle the responsibility,” said Smith. “We were looking for leadership qualities, that’s why we rotated the captains.“A lot of the boys were quite keen and kept us on our toes, too. When we got back from matches they were asking questions. Quite a few of them said they definitely want to go back to play some more cricket in England, they enjoyed it so much.“I was speaking to a mother of one of the boys today and she said ‘what did you guys do to my son, he’s changed and so different?’”