BCB National Academy 

"Connecting Cricket from the grass roots to the World Stage" 

The overall aim of the Academy is to provide talented young cricket players with a comprehensive program to enable them to develop into outstanding cricketers whilst at the same time providing players with the tools they need to develop into well-rounded members of the community. The structure of the BCBNA program highlights the preparation needed to fulfill athlete expectation and progression to achieve the highest level of international competition.

The Academy serves as the top tier of the BCB Youth Development Pathway providing a strong incentive for Bermuda's young cricketers to progress to a higher level providing further incentives for children to participate from a very early age.

The BCBNA also has intakes in the 13 & Under, 15 & Under and 19 & Under boy's age groups as well as the National Women's team and the Under 16 Girls. Each age-group has approximately 25-30 players training throughout the year. The Academy has approximately 150 players in the Elite Program. The boys start in the Under 13 program and the girls start at Under 16 and with hard work and dedication they progress through the program to the senior level.

The players develop technical proficiency, tactical awareness, cognitive understanding, physical development, psychological grounding and personal development over time. Players are selected during cricket trials by the team management overseen by the National Coach. Teams compete in a series of matches throughout the year and also take part in league cricket. For the past three years the Under 15s have competed in the Men?s evening league. The Under 11s played in the Hiscox Celebrity Festival, the Under 13s played against each other and the Under 16 Girls play regularly in Hiscox Under 11 and the BCB Women's League.

The National Academy players are trained in batting, wicket keeping, fielding and bowling. Additional sessions on fitness, nutritional education, sports psychology and anti-drug WADA information sessions are a core part of the syllabus.

National Academy U13 & U15 2012 UK Tour 

The BCB was extremely pleased to undertake the first U13 & U15 cricket tour to the UK in August this year. This two week tour was organised by the BCB and fully funded by the players and parents themselves who worked hard over four months to raise the money to cover the cost of the tour.

Whilst on tour, the national players competed against teams in Leicester, York, Warwick, Bristol and London mixing with other young cricketers from various different social and cultural backgrounds and experienced international competition at a very competitive level.

Players had a number of site-seeing excursions including a guided tour of Lords Cricket Ground and a visit to the Cricket Museum in the Cotswolds. They also went to Leicester County and watched a day's play at a First Class Cricket match.

David Moore stated, "This tour was a real boost to our cricket academy. Players gained valuable playing experiences overseas and were able to benchmark where they are in comparison to other cricketers in full member nations. It was a tremendous opportunity for the players to compete and perform in conditions that are unfamiliar and challenging and to be exposed to different cultures both on and off the field."

National Academy U13 & U15 2014 South Africa Tour

On February 6^th, the following BCBNA players, mainly from the BCB U13 program, set-off to South Africa for a fourteen day cricketing and cultural learning tour. 

Cameron Jeffers                                   Warwick Workmen’s Club

Faheem Swan                                      Willow Cuts Cricket Club

Jade Morrissey                                     Devonshire Rec

Jahdae Wade                                       Devonshire Rec

Justin Bascome-Dickenson                      Bailey’s Bay

Kacy Greene                                       PHC

Kameren Mason                                   PHC

Kayla Raymond                                   St. George’s Prep

Kristian Singh                                      Warwick Workmen’s Club

Sean Tucker                                        Warwick Workmen’s Club

Torleair Caines                                    Warwick Workmen’s Club

LeiLanni Nesbeth                                 St. David’s CCC

Isaiah Greaves                                    Cleveland CCC

Sancho Jackson                                   Bailey’s Bay CC

The squad flew to Cape Town and plaed 6 development matches against local school teams in the South Cape area. The itinerary included:

• 3 coaching sessions at Boland Academy and the world famous Newlands cricket ground
• Full Day cultural experience at a South African school
• Visit to Botlierskop Game Reserve
• Visit to Robben island
• Watch an major cricket match at Newland
• Visit Table Mountain
• Full day excursion to Cape Pont and the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve

To ensure that the players reaped maximum benefit from the tour all squad members were required to write three short essays on Bermuda traditions and how they impacted their personal culture in addition to a short essay about a Bermuda school experience. These were used as background to promote the culture exchange component when speaking with South African school children and opposition players.

Neil Speight, CEO of the BCB noted: “It is important to recognize the amount of work these youngsters (and parents) have done over the last 10 months to fund-raise for this tour. The work began at with punch cards being issued last March, included taking gates and providing security at the World Cricket League, taking gates at Eastern County games, Fish fries, Tag Days, Movie nights etc. The opportunity was open and equal to any player in the Academy but these 14 assumed the burden and have made the time to collect a significant amount of funding for this tour.”

Fifteen parents and BCUA Secretary, Richard Austin, traveled with the group which was led by three BCB representatives including the U13 coaching staff.