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Stovell puts football on the back burner to concentrate on cricket

Rangers skipper Dion Stovell

Southampton Rangers skipper Dion Stovell has declared that his focus is on cricket this winter as Bermuda national team prepare for their upcoming international duties.Stovell, who also plays for Rangers’ football side, should be an important players for Bermuda in November’s World Twenty20 Qualifiers in Dubai, and has confirmed his intentions for the foreseeable future.“Cricket is my main focus right now, with the schedule for the upcoming tour I need to be ready for the competition,” Stovell said.“I’m not worrying about football right now, it would be nice to go out and play every week but right now I can’t.”Stovellis the odds on favourite to claim the Logic Player of the Year award at this weekend’s Bermuda Cricket Board (BCB) award ceremony.In the 2103 50-over season, he amassed 538 runs in the league, more than 100 runs ahead of the next batsman, while also grabbing 22 wickets as his side came second in the competition.Rangers won three trophies this summer, including the BELCO Cup, KO Cup, and Western Counties.Having transferred from Somerset Trojans during the football off season to Rangers, and scoring on opening day for his new club, Stovell explained the reason behind his decision to focus on one sport.“To train three or four times a week and then switch sports is difficult and I need to be focused on the task at hand, which is qualifying for the next round of the World Cup qualifying,” he said.“The opportunities I have in front of me right now for cricket I have to take and be ready to go out there to perform to the required standard.Bermuda have been pitted in Group B which also includes Scotland, Denmark, Holland, Afghanistan, Kenya, Nepal and Papua New Guinea. Group A consists of Ireland, Canada, UAE, Namibia, Hong Kong, Uganda, USA and Italy,The national team will play warm up matches against Italy and Canada before taking on Scotland in their opening World Twenty20 qualifying match on November 15.The top team from each group will automatically advance to next year’s World Twenty20 Tourament in Bangladesh while the second placed team from Group A will play the third from Group B and vice versa with the winners also qualifying.The losers will play the winners of matches involving the fourth and fifth placed teams from both groups to determine the fifth and sixth Associate side to join the ten Test nations for the World Twenty20.