There was an overwhelming response to the women’s national cricket team trials held over two weekends on North Field.

Thirty-three aspiring cricketers pitched up for the first part of the search for players to form Bermuda’s women cricket side, which prompted the Bermuda Cricket Board to give more opportunities to those who missed the first chance.

Allan Douglas Sr, the BCB chairman of high performance was delighted with the turnout and so offered more players the opportunity to be seen by coaches.

Since there are no international fixtures lined up for Bermuda women, the BCB is looking to arrange games with other cricket boards, especially within the Americas region.

The BCB took a giant step by introducing structured cricket for women and four teams compete in a T20 league and knockout competition. A women’s T20 league is an ICC requirement before national teams are allowed to compete in sanctioned tournaments at both senior and under-19 level.

“It was excellent, it surpassed my imagination,’’ Douglas said.

“We had at least 33 players for the first trials, some couldn't make it and there’s still more that want to participate so it was brilliant, it was so welcoming.

“There’s no pending ICC events right now. We’re going to really look at our way forward and plan things ourselves and make some events up, either through other teams, possibly in the Americas region, but it’s a step in the right direction.

“What we’re going to do is a rethink, we’re really going to work with everybody, we’re going to try develop them as good cricketers first.

“It was so great to see the enthusiasm and the energy. The skill level makes it exciting to work with them.

“We’re going to appoint a management team for them; that should be done by next month. The management team will be calling them in and having sessions and training them.

The BCB took full advantage of an evaluation exercise for three coaches, Janeiro Tucker, Terry-Lynn Paynter and Antonio Darrell to invite some players who did not attend the first trials.

“We invited some girls that didn't participate so that they can participate in the assessment. The coaches took them through their drills, showing them how to bat, bowl and field,” said Douglas.

“We needed participants so that they could be coached by the coaches that did the Level 1 coaching course.

“The good thing about the trials is that it opened up the fact that there’s a lot of people out there playing. There’s some girls that came that didn't play the whole season so we’re saying we take everybody, keep them together and develop them as much as you can so that when a time comes, we throw out a squad.

“Our initial intention was to get a squad, put it together and move on, but things had to change because there’s no ICC pending event for them.

“We’re hoping by the middle of next year, we can develop some sort of squad, so if you’re a female in Bermuda playing cricket come through, the door’s been open for everybody.”