Cricket is striker Stovell’s main goal
Somerset Trojans striker Dion Stovell is happy to be banging in the goals for the Digicel Premier Division side but he won’t hesitate to hang up his boots and strap on his pads when the time comes.The Bermuda opening batsman is training twice a week with the national cricket team as they prepare for the World Twenty20 Global qualifiers in March and then helping Trojans to maintain their top-flight status at the weekend.There is no doubt however where Stovell’s priorities lie and when the time comes to focus fully on cricket he’ll be more than ready.“Even though I’m playing football and training with the national team, cricket is my main goal at the moment, and when the time comes I will be ready to be fully committed,” he said.“Football and cricket both have a place in heart, but when it comes down to stop playing football to concentrate and be focussed for my country, I will happily drop it to get myself mentally ready for next year.“Right now it isn’t any problems at the moment and it all balances out, but cricket is my priority.”Stovell has been one of several senior cricket players attending the sessions and is happy so far with both the numbers that are turning up and the level of commitment shown by the players.“Training has been going well so far, we have some good numbers out and a mix of youth and experience out so it is going well at the moment,” said Stovell.“We need the senior players to be influential if we are going to get back to where we once were because the younger guys don’t know what it took to get there and it needs to be integrated into them what it took to get the highest level in the sport.”The Southampton Rangers skipper was one of Bermuda’s top performers against the MCC in October and believes that the matches highlighted the areas where the Island needs to step up.Looking at those results, he said he thought that the side needed some of the bigger names including Janeiro Tucker, Malachi Jones, Lionel Cann and Stephen Outerbridge to play if they were to make much of an impression next year in Dubai.“Looking forward we can’t take a whole side of young guys because if you do and they lose on a consistent basis it becomes their mentality, whereas the older guys can show them the way,” he said.“When people look at the MCC tour we did lose a few games but when we had a half way decent team on the pitch they had a hard time beating us and we need to continue with the seasoned players while also bringing in the right youngsters.“You can’t overhaul a team and expect to win, no where in the world do you do that and once we can find the right blend of both then we can move forward.”