Kamau Leverock and Delray Rawlins will be keen to make the most of an opportunity to showcase their cricket skills at the US Open Cricket T20 tournament.

The talented all-rounders have been selected to represent the Florida Scorpions, who are among ten teams vying for $100,000 in prizes, in the tournament which will be held at the Central Broward Regional Park in Fort Lauderdale, Florida from December 6-13.

Leverock, the Bermuda captain, will have the added responsibility in his role as the team’s vice-captain.

He and Rawlins are among a multinational roster that also features Kyle Coetzer, the Scotland captain and 2020 Associate Cricketer of the Year. Coetzer has been appointed as the team’s captain.

The Florida Scorpions have been pitted in Group B along with Samp Army, Clarion County Eagles, Punjab Blues and Titans Cricket Club.

Group A consists of US All Stars, Cavaliers 22 Yards, NDCC Royals, Brampton Pacers and Yankee Royals.

The top two teams from each group following the initial round robin phase will progress to the semi-finals.

The winners of Group A will meet the runners-up of Group B and vice versa to determine the finalists.

“The committee met and looked at the strength of all the teams on paper and came up with two competitive groups,” Sofian Qamar, president of Cricket Council USA, told News925.

“This ensured that there was no ‘group of death’, so to speak, as they think that both groups are balanced and hence there will be competitive cricket leading up to the knockout stages of the tournament.”

Last year’s champions Atlanta Param Veers are not involved in this year’s tournament.

Florida Scorpions will meet Clarion County in their tournament opener on December 6.

They will then face Titans Cricket Club (December 9), Punjab Blues (December 10) and Samp Army (December 12).

Darren Bravo, the West Indies batsman, endorsed the competition and stated that he was amazed by its growth over the years.

Bravo, along with his older brother Dwayne, a standout West Indies all-rounder, played for the US All Stars during the 2018 staging of the tournament, leading team to the final before they lost out.

“So many top players are now coming in to play at this tournament, this is amazing,” Bravo said during a courtesy call to Mahammad Qureshi, the chairman of CCUSA. “The tournament has really progressed well.

“It is good to see all these top players coming into to play at the US Open T20 because this will do wonders for cricket in this tournament.”

Meanwhile, Arnold Manders, the Bermuda Cricket Board president, is thrilled to see national team pair Rawlins and Leverock compete at this level.

“It’s a great opportunity,” he said. “It’s a good thing and something that we looked for with our strategic plan in helping players get into tournaments like that and probably maybe holding one of them ourselves. Something like an IPL but not as big.

“That’s the only way cricket is going to improve and we shall be looking at it because we have our five-year strategic plan assisting players and getting them to play at another level that will start in 2022.”

Manders hopes to see more local players competing in tournaments such as the US Open Cricket T20 and others in the future.

“I think we probably have a couple of other players that have the potential of playing in it,” he added. “But that’s something we would have to look at and getting, particularly Allan Douglas and Tre Manders, involved because they were among the top performers at the recent ICC T20 World Cup Americas Qualifier.

“I think Tre, Allan, Delray and Kamau can play at that level.”

Bermuda were eliminated from the 2022 ICC T20 World Cup qualifiers after finishing third behind winners United States and runners-up Canada at the regional qualifier in the Caribbean this month.

Only the top two teams progressed to the ICC T20 World Cup Global Qualifier to be held in early 2022.

Newly crowned champions Australia will host the main event next October and November.