Players have realised what they can achieve

WHAT a trip. I was lucky enough to be selected to represent Guernsey in its first steps into the world of international cricket when the island faced Namibia and Bermuda in Sussex this week.

The memory of sitting in the changing room after just playing Bermuda with a beer in my hand and looking at my tired team mates having spent three hard days on the cricket field, will stay with me for a long time.

It was a sweet moment.

We were all tired, we were all emotional and we had a lot to be proud about.

Even though we had lost to both Namibia and Bermuda we had proved to ourselves, and to the powers that be at the International Cricket Council, that we can compete with the big boys of the ICC.

Before we went to face Namibia, we had no idea how we would compare to them and we would talk about them in hushed tones as we knew that they were going to be good. There were rumours that they had a 90mph-plus bowler who had turned up at a cricket club in Windhoek from out of the bush.

It had to be true, the boys had seen an article on the Internet about it. Although the story was soon dispelled when someone pointed out that it was written on 1 April.

But what were real were their Burger boys, two sets of brothers, led by the formidable opening batsman, Jan-Berrie Burger. He made a name for himself when he took England's bowlers apart in a quickfire 85 in the last World Cup.

The last time Namibia played England was in November last year, when Michael Vaughan's team visited the south-west African country before they went on their controversial tour of Zimbabwe. The home side lost by six wickets but they proved to be a sterner test to the English than the woeful Zimbabweans.

In a nutshell, Namibia are a good cricketing nation and, with the exception of Scotland, they are possibly the strongest ICC Associate outfit. When Guernsey stepped on the field to face them, to date it was the biggest day for the island in connection with this most elegant of sports.

So what happened next when the Sarnians had the Africans at 65 for 5 is truly amazing. Not amazing in that the better side had capitulated but amazing that for the first time Guernsey realised that they can compete with the top ICC countries.

We got to realise how good we are. We've got great players in Lee Savident and Ami Banerjee but it was Jeremy Frith who stood out.

The all rounder twice pulled his team out of the mire with the bat, once against Namibia and then the next day against Bermuda. With the ball he was class and he took a couple of quality catches close to the bat.

On the evidence of his performances this week it is mystery why he is not playing cricket professionally, but county cricket's lose is Guernsey's gain.

We have got the players, we have got the infrastructure and with our large finance industry we have the serious financial backing to establish ourselves as a leading ICC team.

But we are by no means the finished article and valuable lessons were learnt from both Namibia and Bermuda.

We need to learn how to bowl at the end of an innings as our bowling became too predictable for the Namibians as they smashed 114 from the last 10 overs. Different type of deliveries such as slower balls need to be worked on.

The Namibia also demonstrated to us the importance of fitness in conjunction with fielding. This is an area that island manager Dave Hearse continually stressed onto his charges over the winter, and the physically fit Namibians were certainly impressive in the field.

From Bermuda we learnt importance of tight line and length bowling as they restricted us to 178. We also need to learn how to build a total as in both games our top order failed to get off to a good start.

But the main purpose of the trip was to find out these things as we look to the possibility of our little island lining up with England and Australia in a World Cup in the upcoming years.

We now know that it is achievable.