January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
Straight off the bat
Is Government serious about helping our cricket programme?
If it is, then it should ensure we have an ODI certified field at the National Centre
We can host four-day matches but not one-day matches.
That's not the Bermuda Cricket Board's fault, that's Government's fault. We can bring in a pitch in a container and get it done, but the environmentalists would be up in arms.
This is not going to harm the environment. They can test the soil to make sure its okay and then we can get rolling.
We've built a cricket facility, but it doesn't have a proper pitch for One Day status.
The cricket team won't be getting any fame or glory or reaching the World Cup any time soon. Especially in looking at how the rest of the world is making progress. We need to bring in other countries
The United States is hosting Sri Lanka and New Zealand at its only One Day field in Florida. We could bring in Test playing nations who would love to play in Bermuda.
How serious are we really about cricket? How serious is Government? Sure they gave the cricket board a lot of money in the Budget, but they need to step up to the wicket and get a field certified for One Day status if they really want to be serious.
Just look at the coaching situation - the Cricket Board just got approval for David Moore's work permit. The coach should have been here in January after they announced he was coming in December, but his work permit was held up in Immigration.
That's something Government could have done to help out our cricket team if they were serious. They could have approved the Immigration paperwork faster - providing, of course, the Cricket Board had all the paperwork done properly.
National team
We have a team going off to the most important match of the year and they haven't had any outside training. They will have a training camp for a week prior to the match, but that's not enough.
We can't expect much out of our team with that amount of training.
They should have had a lot more training either at Bailey's Bay or at the National Sports Centre.
I don't care if you have the best 11 players in Bermuda all making the commitment to play for their country, but if they don't train properly, then that's all they are in name - the best.
We keep making the same mistakes over and over again so how can we not expect the same result?
We have to look beyond that.
Our cricket programmes at the clubs are in chaos. The national coach should have been involved in the revamping of our programmes. We're just wasting time - are we serious about cricket or are we just going through the motions?
The time for excuses is over - we've been to the World Cup; Neil Speight is on the ICC Committee.
I don't expect much from them on this tour. I know we can beat anybody on the day - it can happen, but if they win, I'll be very surprised and I'll take it, but I don't expect much. I know the preparation and the preparation has been terrible.
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