JOURNALISTS who came away from Wednesday’s much anticipated Bermuda Cricket Board press conference at which we were expecting to learn the names of those players who will represent the Island at next year’s World Cup, likely did so with more questions than answers.

And the public who read and listened to the ensuing media reports, most likely felt the same way.

None of us are any the wiser.

That’s not necessarily criticism of the BCB, more a reflection, even an indictment, on the state of our national sport.

With all the money that’s been spent, the training camps, the extensive overseas tours - Bermuda have reportedly played more one-day matches since qualifying for the World Cup over 18 months ago than any other ICC Associate nation — we’re no closer to determining a settled squad than we were when the whole exercise began.

Indeed, rather than learn how the BCB had trimmed down the squad recently returned from Africa to a ‘final 15’ we heard how the numbers had been upped to 19.

Apart from the unfortunate Hasan Durham, whose bowling action, it has to be said, does appear awfully suspect and was again a topic of conversation among both officials and observers during the recent tour, nobody got left out. Instead there were four new additions, all of whom will now get chance to prove their worth in a desperate last couple of months’ preparation.

One can sympathise with coach Gus Logie and his selection committee, and while some of our ‘old-timers’ seem to think they could do a better job, it’s difficult to see how.

A general malaise that afflicts far too many of our major sports has certainly left those within the BCB with limited options.

From a population of 60,000, it was always going to be challenging to find a pool of 15 worthy of competing in the game’s biggest spectacle.

Achieving that goal when some of those with the most talent showed the least commitment, turned it into almost an exercise in futility.

With just over three months remaining before the start of the World Cup, we’re left with a smattering of very good players, a few of mediocre talent and one or two who might struggle to force their way into a Sunday village eleven.

Of those, some are carrying injuries and too many are clearly not as fit as they should be.

It’s hardly what Logie might have anticipated when he took on this challenge a couple of years ago.

But as he made clear at Wednesday’s gathering, he’d rather be working with players who demonstrate commitment and ambition than those with perhaps a little more talent but a lot less enthusiasm.

As we’ve seen so often in the past — the recent Ashes debacle being a case in point — success on the cricket field can be as dependent on self-confidence, psychology and mental strength as it can on pure ability.

If our boys can show a little more fortitude, our fate may not be as depressing as the critics fear.

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IT’S difficult to work out what was more absurd, Bermuda Football Association re-naming the long-established Dudley Eve Trophy to honour our Premier, or that same governing body trying to justify it?

From the feedback this newspaper’s received, the football public have a fairly firm opinion on the issue, and they’re not happy. And nor should they be.

What on earth were the BFA thinking?

The tournament no more belongs to the Premier than it does to the Elbow Beach chef who joked about pouring arsenic into our leader’s soup.

The $150,000 being invested in the tournament over the next ten years doesn’t belong to the Premier, it belongs to you and I, the taxpayer.

Yes, previous sponsors have had their name included in the competition title, because it was their cash swelling the coffers.

But that isn’t the case on this occasion.

If the BFA want to be strictly accurate, then call it the Taxpayers’ Tournament.

But please, don’t stick the Premier’s name where it doesn’t belong. And don’t do it in a way that insults the very legacy of a man for whom this annual event quite fittingly honours.

Merry Christmas!

— ADRIAN ROBSON