SEVERAL things have struck me about this week’s World Cricket League tournament.

1: The grandeur and organisational excellence of it all. Well done ICC.

2: The fantastic opportunities awaiting our developing young cricketers.

3: Who is actually in charge of the Guernsey side?

4: Where has all the experience gone from the senior island team?

Overall, it’s been a brilliant week for the number one summer game but, at the same time, it has thrown up several unanswered questions about just where the local game stands in terms of ability and world status, and what needs to be done to ensure we advance in the near future.

Although it could all go pear-shaped by losing to the amazingly inconsistent Surinamese today, the Greens should attain their original objective which is to finish in the top two and with it move up to Division Six, still one league below the crapauds who had previously been in Division Four.

Were Guernsey able to call on half the all-time Elizabeth College XI featured elsewhere in today’s edition, I would have no concerns about the island’s progress up the ICC ladder, but Dave Hearse cannot and when I look at the sides we have put out this week I see largely a bunch of cricketing novices, several of whom have yet to achieve anything of note within the local game.

That may sound harsh, but it’s true. There are signs of promise, but we are not a particularly good side.

We are chronically short of experience and, as a consequence, the pressure on the likes of Lee Savident, Jeremy Frith, Stuart Le Prevost and Gary Rich is enormous.

The absence of Ami Banerjee is particularly keenly felt.

Picking the kids is borne out of necessity and cannot be criticised, but we have seen some strange happenings this week.

One is the continued mishandling of the skipper’s batting talents.

To bat him at five or lower, as was the case against the Bahranians, the biggest threat to Guernsey’s title aspirations, was jaw-droppingly wrong.

In one-day cricket you do not bat your third most accomplished batsman and, arguably, potentially the most destructive, as low as six in games that really matter.

Because of what I see, I wonder who is in charge of this team?

Good and successful cricket sides are driven to such a position by the leadership skills of their captain, not the coach, the elite-performance director, not the team manager, or a combination of them all.

Just about everybody who watches Guernsey cricket knows it is wrong to bat the captain at five or six, so why do we continue doing it?

As for the tournament itself, it has been brilliant to see what can be done with ICC support against the backdrop of Guernsey’s ever-improving cricket facilities.

It simply emphasises where we have come in terms of world cricket and the amazing opportunities that await the island’s top players across the age-groups.

It’s just a shame that more islanders have not taken the chance to see it.

Away from the cricket, the annual island golf championships ticks along without anything thus far too exceptional, other than that of the progress of a 13-year-old who managed to reach the last 16 and give one of the tournament favourites a fright.

James Hamon (pictured) is the name and how refreshing it was to see an unfazed kid step up onto the biggest sporting stage he has come across and perform.

He showed talent and mettle and talking of guts and application, there is no emerging sportsman showing more this early summer than cricketer Dave Hooper.

There is nothing stylishly classical about his batting or physically threatening about his bowling, but sheer determination is getting the job done.