'Not getting invited to play is a slap in the face'

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28: We didn’t get invited to the Caribbean Twenty/20 tournament.

It’s very disappointing but it’s also a slap in the face to Bermuda cricket and to Bermuda.

Most of the cricket lovers in Bermuda follow the West Indies and have always been fans of the West Indies.

They spend money in the West Indies every year by going down to Test matches and support the team.

They spend money in the hotels, restaurants and at the games.

But this is typical that they don’t support us back.

When we qualified for the World Cup in 2005, they never once stepped forward to help us out.

We had One-Day status for four years and we only played the West Indies twice and that was in the triangular series with Canada.

They never reached out to help us as this region’s top only full member.

Our West Indian coach Gus Logie was taking us to Trinidad, Jamaica and other places in the Caribbean and spending our tax payers’ money over there.

We had options to go elsewhere, but we chose to go there and spend money.

They had a chance to help us out by inviting us to come down for the tournament, but instead they invite our competition from The Netherlands.

That’s embarrassing and a slap in our face.

Bermuda has catered to others from other countries and other people but we always come up with the short end of the stick.

This is the lowest blow of all. It is completely unacceptable.

As a full member I expect the West Indies to take care of its associate members — that is their duty.

It’s happening elsewhere in the world.

Pakistan is helping Afghanistan; Sri Lanka is doing that — so I expect the West Indies to help take care of us.

There can be no excuse as to why they can’t make sure they look out for the associate members in the region.

We didn’t even get the courtesy of a simple invitation.

With us competing in the Twenty/20 World Cup, this would have been an ideal tournament. I have nothing good to say about us not being invited.