four young cricketers during the recent Under-19 World Cup as all performed well above their standard, according to manager of the Americas team, Bermudian Michael Glasford.

The locals -- OJ Pitcher, Chris Foggo, Landro Minors and Stephen Outerbridge -- returned home with Glasford on the weekend.

Although the one-off appearance by the Americas Select saw the side failing to win a single game, Glasford was encouraged by the team's performance, noting they were at a disadvantage compared to other sides in the tournament.

"Our Bermuda boys played above their own standard, they wanted to show Sri Lanka and the other youngsters around them what the game was all about, especially that last game when they helped take the side to within seven runs of winning against Holland,'' said Glasford.

"I feel overall the team could have used more bowling, we didn't have any recognised spin bowlers. Other teams had a lot of spin bowling to spearhead their attack but we didn't and this hampered us a bit.

"However, our four really played well. It was a huge eye opener for them and I think they will learn from the tour and pass the experience they picked up on to others.'' Glasford claimed the Americas team were never outplayed, despite the many difficulties they encountered.

On several occasions they had to scramble to field a decent team, due mainly to players suffering injuries or stomach sickness.

"We had to chop and change at the last minute because of this and at one time we even had both of our opening batsmen sick,'' said Glasford.

"But we managed to cope, our fellows still performed well. We joked about if the tournament had actually started when we played our last game we would have been far more competitive. We really did peak against Holland in that final game.'' The Americas players, added Glasford, took several days to acclimatise after the long trip to get to Sri Lanka.

"It took a while to adjust. I actually met four of the players only when we arrived in Sri Lanka. We had done a lot of flying to get there, seven hours from Canada to England and then the same time from England to Dubai and another four and a half fours to Sri Lanka. We took nearly a week to get over the time change and everything else.

"Naturally the other teams had the upper hand from the start since they were a unit that had trained together while we were just being assembled. We also had some of the smallest players, although I don't think they were intimidated.

"The conditions were first class,'' added Glasford. "We couldn't ask for anything better. We had tight security, the grounds were well prepared and the umpires were first class. It was just a great tournament and we returned with good memories of Sri Lanka.

"The weather was just like Bermuda, hot during match days but a lot of nights it would rain. If there was anything negative it was that games were delayed the next morning for about half an hour to enable the grounds to dry, but this caused no problems.''