Bermuda's national cricket squad heading to Malaysia next year for the ICC tournament.

Bermuda Cricket Board of Control president Ed Bailey made the point this week as he attempted to explain why the stylish opening batsman might be excluded from any squad selected to train.

Despite being the second highest run getter during the 1996 season, Gibbons' criminal record -- he was convicted and served time in prison for a marijuana offence -- would likely preempt his entry into Malaysia, the host nation for the ICC Trophy competition next March, or possibly some countries where lay-overs are required.

And Bailey made it clear this week that the Board were unwilling to risk potential embarrassment or increased financial costs such a denial might cause.

"We have players who have extreme amounts of ability who have personal problems and these problems have nothing to do with the Board or even the Bermuda Government,'' explained Bailey.

"The problems lie with the policies of foreign countries and when we have people selected to represent us in other countries and they don't qualify because they have transgressed immigration policies, that puts us in a difficult position.'' "And I can tell you that in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) it's almost like the Mid-East policy of Saudi Arabia. The Malaysian Cricket Association have emphasised that anyone with a drug conviction or who uses drugs will not be tolerated, that they have zero tolerance.

"The Board will certainly be screening every player that it takes, because the penalties for drug convictions are very severe.'' Indeed, Malaysian law carries the death penalty for persons caught in possession of or smuggling drugs, with one recent case resulting in two English women initially being sentenced to death after they were caught in possession of heroin -- the sentences were later converted to life in prison after the British Government intervened.

Bailey said that there was little the BCBC could do to persuade foreign governments to allow previous drug offenders entry, pointing to the local government as the vehicle for clearing passage.

"It's up to the foreign country and the Bermuda Government to work it out, because such immigration policies are beyond the Board,'' said Bailey, noting it to be a problem affecting all sports.

He also urged players themselves to come clean regarding any criminal past in order to avoid any conflict, as well as to allow an investigation in advance into whether their travel would be blocked.

"In many instances players don't even reveal any past history (of criminal activity) to the Board and it's later found out by accident or some other means.

"In the case of Treadwell Gibbons it was revealed and the whole world knows about it -- at least those who read The Royal Gazette .

The president said that he hoped the matter would highlight to young people harbouring aspirations of international careers the "hazards of getting involved with drugs''.

He noted two others -- but declined to name them -- who had previously been chosen for Bermuda, but were forced out due to their being on the `stop list'.