---

There are times when Bermudians can be proud of its sportspersons.

Sunday night's 20/20 cricket performance in Antigua wasn't one of them. Bermuda's eleven were matched against last year's champions, Guyana -- not a fortunate opening draw.

Our team was all out for 62 runs. Guyana lost only one wicket to pass that score.

It was embarrassing to watch on television. It must have been humiliating for those on the field or in the stands.

There's enough blame to go around; the Bermuda Cricket Board of Control (BCBC), Club officials, selectors, captains and players have all been targeted. Some are blaming Bermuda's weather or lack of a suitable cricket pitch. At the top of my list are Bermuda's size, location and egos.

Size: Bermuda is just too small to have enough good cricket players from which we could select great teams ready to perform at the international cricket level. We can produce a few good sportspersons per generation - even one or two great ones. But the pool from which we choose just isn't big enough to consistently supply teams of international caliber. In addition, the attractions of other sports, other non-sport activities (including drugs) and other countries absorb the energy and dedication that we would need to devote to training, conditioning and playing if we're going to be serious cricket contenders.

Location: Bermuda is too distant from the loop of cricket-playing countries to easily engage in serious competition. The teams -- ours and our rivals' -- have to travel too far to enable frequent meaningful competition. Playing against local teams just doesn't provide the physical, mental and strategy workout to hone our game to international sharpness. The distance also hobbles fan support, and fans are a team's "twelfth man". As Sunday's match showed, the Guyana cricketers came into the match not only with a champions' attitude, they could claim maybe 99% of the fans in the stands.

Egos: we tend to have an overblown image of ourselves. I have heard people, whose own travel experience is quite limited, stating categorically that something or someone in Bermuda is "the best in the world", as though they had made studied comparisons. We are a unique people and have probably produced more than our share of standouts in many fields, but we delude ourselves if we think we have a place in the higher echelons of the global stage for any team sports.

Another ego factor impedes our training and development of skills. I believe we have a cultural norm of not valuing teachers. We tend not to see the learning opportunities from devoting ourselves to those with expertise. This may be the flip side of our education troubles -- an ego-based attitude against learning typified by the words, "Bye, you can't tell me nothing". This resistance to accepting nuggets of information or technique from others may be one of our less desirable cultural habits.

It is an ego thing that lets our athletes believe they can compete without rigorous training discipline, or get fit without losing weight, or shine on the international stage without mastering the basics. It's ego-folly that leads us to believe we can risk ecological disaster from importing tons of foreign soil for the sake of a cricket pitch, or throw $11 million into the hands of cricket personnel -- as though either would have changed last Sunday's or future similar outcomes.

There's no need to shun mixing it up with overseas teams but we should choose our competitions to match our capabilities. Some sober thinking could keep us from wasting a lot of money and a save us from a lot of embarrassment.[[In-content Ad]]

---