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Finally local cricket fans get to see national squad in action.

I must take my hat off to Somerset and Southampton cricket clubs for their efforts in arranging the forthcoming visit to the island of premiere Trinidadian side Clico Preysal Sports Club.

In so doing they have provided local cricket fans with perhaps their last opportunity to see the national team in action prior to their participation in the 2007 World Cup.

This is extremely important; as Bermudians will be able to decide for themselves the progress the players have made over the past twelve months.

The national squad have travelled to Africa, the Middle East, England, the Caribbean and Canada since last September.

Certainly Clico should provide a stern test for our team, although touted as being a relatively young side the team includes three players who have represented the West Indies, wicketkeeper/batsman Denesh Ramdin, fast bowler Ravi Rampaul and off spinner Ryan Hurley.

Although Bermuda did well, winning their first Americas Cup tournament in Toronto last month, most knowledgeable cricket fans will recognize that we were competing against what would be considered our peers. And considering the type of preparation we had going into that tournament, compared to our opponents, one would have expected the team to do well, in fact stand-in captain Irving Romaine stated as much before the team departed for Toronto.

Clico, who Bermuda defeated by six wickets in Couva, Trinidad last April, should provide a far greater challenge this time round.

Their coach, former Trinidad captain Rangy Nanan, has made clear that Clico were missing key players for that match and that his side were looking forward to 'settling an old score'. I would encourage all Bermuda cricket fans to get out to these matches so that they can reach their own conclusions regarding the progress of our team.

Stadium name

On another note, there was some discussion on a local talk show regarding the naming of the National Sports Centre. The final consensus appeared to be that the complex as a whole be named after the late Mr. W.F. 'Chummy' Hayward, a well know sports benefactor, with the football section being named after Mr. Clyde 'Bunny' Best, arguably the best footballer this island has ever produced and certainly the most accomplished, having played for West Ham in the old English first division, Feyernood in Holland and a number of teams in North America. It was suggested that the north field or the cricket section to be named after the late Alma 'Champ' Hunt, unquestionably Bermuda's greatest cricketer to date.

In 1933, at the tender age of 17 Hunt, was taken to the Caribbean by the late Dr. E.F. Gordon to play in a West Indies trial match and outshone everyone including the Caribbean greats George Headley and Learie Constantine but was cruelly denied a place in the West Indies team on the basis that Bermuda was outside their jurisdiction.

Years later at a 1943 War time gathering of Bermudian and Caribbean servicemen and women in London, Constantine confessed to well-known cricket statistician Tommy Aitchison that Hunt should have been in that West Indies team saying that the West Indies needed him and he would have been a real asset.

This proposal appears to be a reasonable one, however there is one 'snag'. Both Best and Hunt controversially visited South Africa during the era of apartheid an act which many Bermudians found absolutely reprehensible at the time and this could work against what would otherwise be seen as a reasonable proposition.[[In-content Ad]]

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