With Dean Minors making himself an indispensable member of the national side over the past year and a half, Bermuda?s current reserve wicketkeeper Jekon Edness knows he won?t have many opportunities to impress before the World Cup squad is named in November.

The Western Stars youngster joined up with the squad early yesterday morning and is taking a 10-day break from a hectic schedule of work and cricket at university in Wales, where he is studying along with Stephen Outerbridge thanks to a Bermuda Cricket Board scholarship.

Like Outerbridge, Edness has adjusted to student life in Cardiff with apparently little fuss and says he has grown both as a person and as a cricketer in his first year there.

Boasting one of five elite university cricket academies in the UK, the University of Wales Institute Cardiff (UWIC) is a vibrant breeding ground for those who are, or aspire to be, professional cricketers and Edness believes he will be in a position to push for the coveted national team wicketkeeping slot after a couple of years in this environment.

?It?s been such a good experience and in terms of my cricket I?ve had to grow up pretty quickly,? he said.

?During the winter there was a lot of indoor training and now that the season has started there are so many games to play in. I?ve been very busy, but I?m enjoying it.?

Although he has been out injured for the past three weeks with a small skull fracture after being hit on the forehead by an errant throw, Edness was the academy?s first choice stumper from the beginning of the season.

But like so many other wicketkeepers, Edness has had to get used to the ball moving around considerably after it has passed the batsman ? a phenomenon which occurs almost exclusively in England and has embarrassed even the very best in the game.

?That was something I had never come across before and in the first few games I struggled with it,? he said.

?Now though I think I?ve learned to cope with it a bit better and overall I?ve been trying to stay a little more relaxed behind the stumps and not be so tense and anxious. For me it?s the mental side of the game that I needed to work on because when I missed a chance in the past I used to let it bother me and my ?keeping would start to get worse.

?That happens much less now and my ?keeping has improved. I?m still learning and developing though and hopefully by the time I?ve finished in Cardiff I will be close to where I need to be to get into the national team regularly.?

One area that has counted against Edness up to now has been his batting, and even he is prepared to admit that in comparison to Minors and to a lesser extent Kwame Tucker, he simply does not yet match up.

Very few, if any, international teams pick wicketkeepers incapable of scoring runs in the top seven these days, and Edness is fully aware that he will have to deliver in this area if he is to stand any chance.

?My batting is not where it has to be right now,? he conceded. ?But I?ve benefited a lot from a winter in the indoor nets against the bowling machine, which is something I?ve never had access to on a regular basis before.

?I realise that I?ve got to improve my batting and I?ve got a great opportunity to do that.?