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Before Bermuda's ill-fated trip to Johannesburg, coach Gus Logie produced a booklet for each of his players detailing precisely what was expected of them.

The mission: World Cup Qualification

The objective: To prove the critics wrong.

But as his team headed for home yesterday to a chorus of condemnation and ridicule from the international press, the disillusioned coach was left to wonder if some of his players had even read his meticulous guidelines.

Amid stories of late nights in casinos before match days, Logie became increasingly frustrated with the attitude and desire of some of his senior players.

He even broke with his usual optimistic and supportive approach to publically criticize the lack of 'hunger' in his squad.

And in spite of two morale boosting wins over Oman and Uganda in the last few days to take Bermuda to ninth position, he has been left 'disheartened' by the approach and the performances of key players.

Though he accepts as coach he will be blamed for the failure he believes the battle was lost in the hearts and minds of players who did not want success as badly as their opponents.

"You have to be critical of individual performances," he said.

"The performances of some on the team lacked that desire.

"You see it in the body language on the field of play. You don't see energy, you don't see purposefulness, you don't see any kind of signal that I really want to be here, I really want to fight for my team. This is what has been very disheartening."

Logie dismissed criticism of the squad's preparation as 'emotional excuses' insisting the players had met high quality, energetic teams in their 11-game West Indies tour and had been given access to information from a plethora of former greats including Lance Gibbs and Bernard Julian.

UAE for example - a team made up of hotel waiters and baggage handlers - had only three weeks together as a squad before the tournament and many of the players took their annual vacation from work to compete.

In terms of preparation and experience Bermuda were ahead of a lot of their rivals. The difference, says Logie, was in their approach.

"We have come here and seen how other teams operate, how they train, how they commit, it's no secret, we have to be disciplined and do the same things if we want to beat them.

"This thing that we have all this talent and we don't feel we have to conform to some of the other things. That is nonsense. Everybody has talent.

"Every time we lose a game you hear the same thing - those players are not better than us.

"Well, why did we lose today? What did we do wrong? If they're not better than us how come they're beating us?

"It is because they are prepared to discipline themselves, follow the processes and the guidelines that were set down and adhere to a game plan."

One of the key instructions in Logie's pre-tour guidelines was 'do not show up with excuses to lose'. Now that the tour is over he insists the litany of excuses - bad luck, the size of the island, the quality of preparation - still do not wash.

"We shouldn't be looking to make excuses for people. You give them the ingredients for success, let them know what is required - the choices are up to them."

Don't blame others

"If they make mistakes don't be looking to blame others.

"You can't keep saying it wasn't my day or we didn't have the luck. That's not cricket. If you don't prepare properly you are going to fail."

Logie admits he has to take his share of the blame for the failure. But with critics already calling for his head in Bermuda, he is anxious not to be made a scapegoat .

"This is a team that I coached. I'm not going to shirk that - I am responsible

"That doesn't mean I can't highlight areas that I feel have been deficient.

"Coaches are hired to be fired I'm going to come and I'm going to go, somebody else is going to come and he's going to go.

"So what do we leave? If there's no change in the approach and no change in the attitude of the people who are actually playing the game, what significant changes are you going to get? None."

Logie also stood by his initial tactic of using Lionel Cann as an opener, saying the strategy had failed because Cann had not done his job.

"He didn't perform - it's not about personal criticism - it's about identifying the areas (where we went wrong) and to me he was unwilling to do what was necessary for the team.

"We had a strategy in place. Everybody agreed and adhered to that strategy and then when you hear people talking that they are doing you a favour, that they are playing out of position it is disheartening to anyone."

Logie pointed out that Cann had been groomed for the openers' positions for the last six months and had enjoyed considerable success from that spot.

He said the idea was to get Bermuda off to a flying start with a big hitter at the top of the order - a tactic deployed successfully by many other teams in this tournament and by Bermuda, with Cann as opener, in the Americas tournament and their West Indies tour.

Using Hemp as an opener had been an emergency tactic - jettisoning the advantage of a quick start with the fielding restrictions in place in the first ten overs.

"When you see the format of the game you look at the teams we're playing against everybody is getting off to fast starts.

"You're not going to get that with Hemp. We had to accept that and have him try and bat through the overs with the rest of the order playing around him.

"Look at Canada - they're getting fast starts with Davison and Cheema then the other players will come and build in the middle and they are able to capitalize on the power plays at the end.

"We have not been able to do that because the individual that we identified (Cann) was just not able to fulfill his role simple as that."

Logie expects to move on, or be moved on, by the time his contract expires in September and he accepts that it could be time for a fresh approach.

He fears his successor will face similar problems unless there is a sea change in attitude from the players - not just those in the national squad, but on the club circuit as well.

"Players have to want to be the best - and not just between St. George's and Dockyard."

But he does see cause for optimism in the performances and attitude of a handful of players - the likes of Hemp, Leverock, Rodney Trott and Stephen Outerbridge.

"There are players on the team who have done themselves justice because their approach, their attitude, their whole mindset to the game has been important.

"If you have the majority of those type of players on any team you will be a lot more successful."

And though he is unlikely to be around to witness it, Logie does believe Bermuda can requalify for the World Cup in the future.

"If individuals want it bad enough the size of the country should never determine the size of their success.

"It is there but you've got to work for it - nothing is written in the stars to say it can't be done, nothing is written in the stars to say it can be done. It takes hard work."[[In-content Ad]]

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