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Last week's column in which three prominent members of the local cricket fraternity, Noel Gibbons, Dexter Basden and Ricky Hodsoll urged national team selectors to recall veteran player Charlie Marshall to the island's senior squad has raised a recurring question that exists in all sports — youth versus experience.

There is a trend of thought in this country that Bermuda should carry as many youngsters as possible to the World Cup in Trinidad next year.

The reasoning is that as the island stands very little chance of winning any of their group matches let alone the World Cup then it would be more beneficial to allow a young team to have the experience of playing on the big stage so as to prepare them for the next ICC Trophy tournament and the following World Cup (should they qualify).

This reasoning does carry a certain amount of validity and certainly those who take such views have a strong case.

However, what I find interesting is that many of the people who share this view were the same ones who prior to the ICC Trophy tournament in Ireland last year felt that the selectors should have gotten rid of most of the players in that team and replaced them with a team of youngsters, again in order to prepare for the future.

Can you imagine if the selectors had done this? Would Bermuda have qualified?

I think not!

Any player who represents Bermuda in next year's World Cup must be there on merit and merit alone.

As I have mentioned before, a World Cup is not the platform to groom a player on, as each member of the squad may be called upon to compete at any time. Each team is only allowed fourteen players so there is no room to really carry anyone.

It would be a bad mistake to rule anyone out on the basis of age. Take international sports for instance and I will start with the World Cup of football which most sports fans are focused on right now.

Remember when Cameroon better known as the 'Indomitable Lions' made their impressive entry on the World Cup stage their team contained one player in particular who captured the imagination, Roger Milla who at 38 was the star of that 1990 team scoring four goals as they became the first African side to reach a World Cup quarter-final.

A good cricket example would be former West Indies captain Rohan Kanhai who in the very twilight of his career played a key role in helping West Indies to secure the first World Cup in 1975.

At that time Kanhai scored 55 putting on a vital 149 with Clive Lloyd for the fourth wicket after West Indies had been struggling at 50 for 3. The West Indies went on to beat Australia by 17 runs.

To be honest nothing excites cricket fans more than to see a young new talent burst on to the scene, the recent ascent of George O'Brien is clear example. But it would be foolhardy to ignore the tried and tested performer on the basis of age alone. In truth the question is not one of youth versus experience but whether the player whatever his age has the ability to perform on the day.[[In-content Ad]]

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