Flatts Victoria’s preparations for their Eastern Counties Cup second-round showdown with holders Cleveland County has received a massive boost with the availability of Bermuda all-rounder Kamau Leverock for the match at Sea Breeze Oval on August 18.

The Nottinghamshire second XI and Clifton player has made himself available for selection for Flatts and is expected to play a leading role in the challengers’ attempt to put an end to a drought in the competition that spans nearly 40 years.

“Kamau will be back,” Kijuan Franks, the Flatts player-coach, said. “He will be coming back sometime next week and the club is always excited to have a player of his quality in the squad.”

Leverock has been in good form with the bat lately, as he produced a knock of 125 opening the innings for Clifton in their abandoned match against Lullington Park in the Derbyshire County Cricket League first division at the Chapel Lane Ground last month.

He also made an appearance for inaugural Global Twenty20 Canada winners Vancouver Knights during an 18-run triumph over the Montreal Tigers at the tournament in Toronto last month.

The exciting all-rounder thrilled local cricket fans with a spell of fast bowling on his Eastern Counties debut for Flatts in last year’s final against Bailey’s Bay at Lord’s.

Leverock claimed six for 75 to put the challengers in a commanding position before a poor reply from them with the bat enabled Bay to retain the cup via a comfortable 83-run triumph in the low-scoring match.

“A player of his quality you kind of expect that and hopefully he can do it again this year,” Franks added.

“Last year there were a couple of unfortunate things that transpired which hindered us from getting it [the victory]. But we’re definitely looking to improve from last year and go all the way.”

Franks feels good about his team’s chances for success against Cleveland.

“Any team we went up against we were always going to be sure we can get the victory,” he said. “But we are not taking anything from Cleveland because they are a good squad and a well-rounded unit.

“They have some good bats and bowlers, and so it should be a good game.”

Flatts and Cleveland face each other on Sunday in the One Communications First Division Championship Cup at St John’s Field. Both teams went up, with Cleveland winning the league and Flatts beating Premier Division side Western Stars in the play-off.

“Being promoted has given us good momentum and confidence going into counties, especially being the first team [from the first division] to go through the play-off and do it,” added Franks, who is in his fifth season as Flatts coach. “We secured promotion which was one of our goals even though our form in July kind of let us down and denied us automatic promotion. But we learnt from it and are just going forward and building on the momentum we have right now.”

Cleveland, who won the First Division 50 overs title and with it automatic promotion to the top tier, beat holders Bay by 65 runs to reclaim the Eastern Counties Cup in a thrilling low-scoring contest at Sea Breeze Oval last month.