We need more Premier Division teams

WEDNESDAY, SEP. 12: Six teams just is not enough for the top level of cricket. Next year the league should have a minimum of eight teams, if not every team.

The concept of having just six teams sounds good on paper, especially if they are all professionals, but in an amateur situation like Bermuda, it doesn’t work.

We had several teams that were no shows for some matches.

Devonshire rec almost ended up not having a team. So it was a mismatch every time someone played them.

There were teams in the lower division that would have beaten Devonshire Rec this season. 

The best step for the league is to bring every club along at the same time.

While it’s fine to say that the best players are playing on those six top teams, but the reality is some of Bermuda top players are in the lower league.

There also can’t be an expectation all the good players are going to go to the best clubs. It’s just not going to work.

You can’t ask a guy who’s developed at Warwick to then go play for St David’s or St George’s just because they are in the top six.

So we have to find a way to bring along every player at every club and the key to that is better coaching.

Over the last few years we’ve had an exodus of senior players and most of them did not stay around to help. The guys from Arnold Manders’ era all left with very few of them returning to coach.

They just aren’t giving back to the game.

Cricket has become such a young sport with hardly any senior players hanging around so there is no one to set the example on or off the field and help discipline the younger players.

The clubs management has become younger as well and they are not disciplining their players.

This isn’t a one item fix, but we definitely need more than six teams in the Premier League if we want to enhance Bermuda cricket.

The top teams could have benefitted from playing against the clubs from the First Division because there are quality players on those clubs.

You have guys like Jekon Edness, Ricky Hoyte and Jacobi Robinson from Somerset; Glenn Blakeney at St George’s; Garry Williams at Warwick; Donnie Charles from Somerset Bridge; Tre Manders at Western Stars; Kevin Hurdle from Flatts — The list goes on and on. Every club has two or three quality players who can player in the Premier League and make runs and get wickets just as good as players from the top clubs.

I remember back in the day when I was coming through, we used to have one league and that’s what made all the clubs better and more competitive.