January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
It’s time to look outside the box
Quite frankly I expected our side to defeat Canada after all they had literally just come in from the cold, were without any real match practice and hadn't played together as a team for several months.
We on the other hand had toured Trinidad a few weeks before, participated in the 20/20 classic and arrived in Trinidad several days before our match against them. Nevertheless the victory over Canada was good news despite the fact that we nearly conspired to lose the game after putting ourselves in an extremely good position.
The games themselves - particularly the matches against Zimbabwe - ruthlessly exposed the deficiencies in our team, especially the fragility of our early order batting as well as the limitations of some of our opening bowlers.
On the plus side I believe George O'Brien was a revelation. I for one am glad that the BCB decided to take the advice of respected former St. George's Cup Match captain Calvin 'Bummy' Symonds and work with him.
O'Brien returned respectable figures in every single match he played and at last it appears we are on the road to solving our fast bowling problems.
Along with Saleem he formed a good opening bowling partnership, now all that we need is a third seamer who can bowl tidily and our problems in that department will be resolved.
I thought on the whole the spinners and middle order batsmen performed competently.
I was particularly pleased for Irving Romaine, whose 62 in the first game against Zimbabwe represents Bermuda's first and only half-century in a ODI.
I can think of no player who is more deserving because while others make their way to Captain's Lounge or Malabar on the weekends, Irving can be found at the Olympic club putting in the extras and it shows!
The continued failure of the early order batting presents serious concerns.
Bermuda regularly fails to get good starts from its openers and this puts immediate pressure on a middle order batting, which I must confess has responded well to the challenge.
However, this state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue. The national selectors have been patient and provided a number of players with an extended run in the team, I believe the time has come for them to look outside of the box!
I do not believe there is a shortage of viable alternatives on this island and I would like to suggest a few players who I believe deserve an opportunity.
By the way, in my opinion age, is just a number if a player is good enough and is performing he should not be overlooked. This is the World Cup we are talking about and no one should be carried just for the experience.
The players I think are worthy of consideration are Keith Wainwright, Oronde Bascome, Dean Stephens, Dennis Musson, Steven Bremar jr., Malachi Jones, Arthur Pitcher Jr and Chris ‘Dundee’ Douglas. .
National coach Gus Logie recently complained that many of our players find it difficult to get up for friendly games. It is too bad that a Bermuda A team was not put into place months ago because that I feel would have helped to prevent senior players from becoming complacent.
He has also complained that there is a limited number of players to choose from but I think by refusing to institute a Bermuda A squad we are limiting ourselves.
Finally, a home series this year would have been great. If, instead of the national team travelling to the U.K. to play five friendly matches a team had been brought in to play five matches there would have been several benefits.
The selectors could have provided not only those in the national team but those on the fringes (A Team) with a number of opportunities to perform and prove themselves. Further the players would automatically be put under pressure to take the games seriously because they would have been playing in front of their home fans![[In-content Ad]]
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