The Bermuda Cricket Board met with club representatives via a Zoom meeting this week to outline ambitious plans for the 2021 season.

Steven Douglas, the BCB cricket committee chairman, said the meeting was very productive as regulations, policies and programmes were discussed with the clubs.

“We talked about some house cleaning measures like registration for players and the clubs,” Douglas said. “As soon as we get the registrations in and know where the clubs’ home fields are, we can start putting the schedule together.”

One club looking for a new, temporary home field are Western Stars, whose ground is closed for upgrades.

“Hopefully by mid-February or the end of February, we’ll know where teams are playing, but we’re still working now on putting the schedule together regardless,” Douglas added.

“We’re working around the Cup Match and Central, Eastern and Western Counties dates so we can tie everything in.

“We also have three major [overseas] tournaments coming up but we still have to carry on playing [domestic] cricket.”

Douglas, who is also president of the Eastern Counties Cricket Association and is one of the island’s senior umpires, said the meeting was a productive one with plans outlined for different courses.

“We talked about the various courses that we will be having — the coaching courses, curator courses and we’re looking to maximise the CricHQ scoring system,” the chairman explained.

“We’re doing a course on that so that at the end of the match the coaches can get a printout from the scorer, which would be like a mini-analysis of the team they played against.

“Hopefully the scoring system is something that will come off real good this year, which will help the coaches. By 2023, we’re hoping to have all the league coaches get a Level 2 coaching certificate to help raise the game to another level.”

Douglas added: “From my background as an umpire, I want to make sure every captain, coach and manager is fully aware of the regulations and code of conduct we’re playing under. We’re also looking to do a match managers course, so hopefully we can get some match managers, even if we just do it for Twenty20 games.

“We just can’t go overseas and play in a tournament at a level without playing it at the domestic level.”

Technology is changing the way the game is being covered, with most scorers now using electronic devices, although scorebooks are still used by some.

“Last year we did interviews of captains and outstanding players of the match for streaming and we want to do something similar this year,” Douglas said.

“We’ve got to do as much as we can to prepare everyone for the next level. We’re going to do a course on what CricHQ can do and also for those who can score on the computer but not on a book. You need a book scorer for international games.”

Douglas reiterated that the Eastern Counties will retain the 2020 schedule, with holders St David’s beginning their title defence against Flatts in the first round at Sea Breeze Oval. That will be followed by matches involving Cleveland and Bailey’s Bay in the second round and final respectively.

The schedule for the three matches is easy to remember: two weeks before Cup Match, two weeks after Cup Match and two weeks after that. That would mean dates of July 17, and August 14 and 28.

“That doesn’t change, it’s a hundred years old,” Douglas said.

“We’re starting to plan now and hopefully by that time we’ll be back to normal [with Covid-19]. People like to come and be a part of it.

“There are two county games — the game on the field itself and then the part for the people who love to come and have a good time with family and friends.”