With openings at schools in England having been created for local youngsters Stephen Outerbridge and Stefan Kelly, Bermuda Cricket Board are anxious to help others by forming a local trust fund.

Once such a fund is established, the Board plan to provide sufficient finances to put other young players in schools overseas as well as assist cricketers gain international exposure at academies and clinics around the world.

Outerbridge has already attended the West Indies Youth Cricket Academy in Grenada and recently returned from a training stint at MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) in London while, with assistance from the Board, Kelly has enrolled in Oakham School in Leicestershire in the English Midlands. Like Outerbridge, he is also back home for the holidays.

Board president Reggie Pearman said yesterday he was pleased to see the development programmes paying dividends and reckoned that the implementation of a trust fund would take place in the near future.

"While we are happy to see what Stephen has just accomplished during a few weeks with MCC, we are encouraged to see what opportunities our programme is offering to youngsters such as him and young Stefan," said Pearman.

"In the case of Stephen we are pleased that he got the chance to further his studies abroad and in a country which will also afford him the opportunity to advance his career in a sport he loves.

"If the funding is made available we intend to carry on assisting our youths like this, helping them academically as well as striving for them to further develop in the sport itself."

The president said that immediate steps would be taken to lobby the business community for financial assistance and named the Bank of Bermuda as being one of the major sponsors who had already provided essential funds.

While the academy in Grenada has been a major attraction for young cricketers on this side of the Atlantic, there is now word that both Trinidad and Barbados are considering running similar schools in the near future.

Pearman said that the Board would be looking at these with interest, pointing out that the academy in Grenada still needed much improvement.