---

A host of high calibre candidates have applied for the Bermuda coach's job, the cricket board revealed yesterday.

BCB Vice President Lloyd Fray will head up a five-man selection panel tasked with appointing a successor to former West Indies star Gus Logie, who will depart in September.

Logie made history as the first coach to take Bermuda to the World Cup but resigned in frustration after failing to repeat the feat at the qualifiers in South Africa earlier this year.

The BCB yesterday said it had 12 applicants for the post, which will include responsibility for its high performance programme as well as the national team.

Fray said the list included a mix of household names and lesser-known candidates, with one Bermudian applicant.

Only a handful of local coaches, including national team assistants Clay Smith and Herbie Bascome and national youth coaches Andre 'Doc' Manders and Grant Smith, have the qualifications to warrant consideration, given the BCB's stringent criteria.

Smith, also a former national team captain, has previously said he would be interested in the job.

But it is understood that the board is likely to favour a more experienced overseas candidate.

The Bermuda Sun understands that a number of former Test players are in the frame for the job.

And Fray confirmed that the board had received applications from all over the cricketing world with resumes coming in from Australia, Pakistan, India and South Africa.

David Hemp, who had been linked with the job, has not applied and Colin Wells, another name connected to the post in some media reports, is not believed to be in the frame either.

Fray said it was too early to name the candidates. He and the panel - BCB chief executive Neil Speight, treasurer Gary Knight, former national team star Colin Blades and former BELCO chief Gary Madeiros - will meet next week to discuss the applications and come up with a shortlist.

Fray said the overall standard of the candidates was very good and he hoped the process would produce an outstanding replacement for Logie.

"We are hopeful of getting someone of that calibre. At this stage we are still going through the resumes."

He said the post was not just about coaching the national team and the new man would have more responsibility for the overall programme, from juniors to developing the women's game.

"We are looking for someone to take us through to the 2013 World Cup qualifiers but the role is a little wider in scope. It is to do with the development of cricket as well."

Bermuda only has one international fixture this year - the I-Shield match against either Uganda or UAE - and with the Under-19s exit from the World Cup qualifiers this week, there will be little international action until next summer.

BCB chief executive Speight insisted, though, that it was still a top priority to get the new coach in as soon as possible.

---