J’can Gordon ready to coach Cayman to T20 World Cup

Jamaican coach Steve Gordon hopes the Cayman Islands will be one of the 20 teams parading their skills when the United States of America (USA) and the West Indies host the 2024 ICC Twenty20 (T20) World Cup in June next year.

Starting this weekend, Gordon and his Cayman Islands players will begin their Americas qualifier, which is being held in Argentina, with the Caymanians opening their quest against Bermuda on Saturday before facing Belize the following day.

The Cayman Islands will also be battling with The Bahamas and Panama, with the top three in the sub-regional qualifier progressing to the Americas Regional Final. This will be played in Bermuda between September 28 and October 8, where they will be joined by Canada.

For Gordon, the Cayman Islands have been preparing well and oozing with confidence following a recent home series win over The Bahamas, in which they won all five games.

"Based on the ranking, Bermuda is the only team ahead of us, and with our recent form, I believe we should win the qualifiers and move on to the next phase," said Gordon.

The Cayman Islands, as expected, are multi-cultural with several expatriate players involved, including Jamaicans Paul Manning, who represented Clarendon College at the schoolboy level, as well as former Garvey Maceo player Patrick Heron.

Gordon will also have Barbados-born captain Ramon Sealy, who is their leading batsman, along with the Sri Lankan Sasha De-Alwis and Guyanese Alistair Ifill.

Gordon, the former Jamaica batsman, says the recent hiring of former Jamaica and West Indies player David Bernard Jr as the cricket development manager in the Cayman Islands has also helped their preparations.

"Bernard has joined the system and has come in and imparted a wealth of knowledge to us as coaches, and the players have responded well. Based on our preparations, we are ready to match up against any of the teams in this tournament."

The winners of the Americas Regional Final will qualify for the 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup.