JERSEY have avoided Guernsey in the draw for the European Cricket Council Second Division Championships in Glasgow in August, at least until the latter stages of the event.

So it will be a real step into the unknown as the Island side as they make their debut on the international cricket stage and take their place in a group of four alongside Norway, Israel and France.

Guernsey’s group features Greece, Gibraltar and Germany.

Said Jersey Cricket Board vice-chairman Ward Jenner: ‘The draw is ideal.

It is good to avoid Guernsey because we want to play against new teams and different players.

‘I don’t know much about the other European sides, but I understand we have also done well to avoid Greece as they have a number of players who originated from Australia.

‘We know next to nothing about the teams we have been drawn against but hopefully we can progress and play some of the stronger sides in the latter stages and it would be great if we could make it a Channel Islands final.’ Each group is a round-robin of three games, with the winner of one group meeting the runner-up of the other in the semi-finals with the winners progressing to the final and the losers meeting for third/fourth.

The third team in one group plays the fourth team from the other group for the fifth to eighth-placed play-offs, so each team gets a guaranteed five games and will be ranked one to eight after the tournament (and ranked sixth to 13th overall in Europe behind the five teams in Division One).

The winner of the tournament will be promoted to Division One to join Scotland, Ireland, Holland, Denmark and Italy, while the seventh and eighth teams will be relegated to the new Division Three.

After this year’s tournaments the new European structure will then consist of five divisions of six teams each.

Jersey will have a chance to evaluate one of their opponents in July as France are travelling to Guernsey for a match.

Although unlikely to travel over to watch, the Jersey management will study the scorecard with interest.

At the moment they are concentrating on their indoor net sessions, with reports of challenging and innovative programmes organised by Chris Jones and former professional Ryan Driver.

‘Team bonding and spirit are devloping nicely,’ said Jenner.

Jenner has played in Scotland before, on tour with the Birmingham University side in 1985.

‘The main pitch in Glasgow is a beautiful ground and a fantastic facility,’ he commented.