Control is responsible for the Youth and Reserve Division programmes being in a "shambles'' has received considerable support from various clubs.

It was on ZBM's Talking Sport show on Monday when former Somerset Cricket Club and Southampton Rangers' fast bowler and present team official of St. David's, St. Clair (Brinky) Tucker chastised the BCBC for failing to come to grips with the problem that has plagued the sport for many seasons.

Tucker went as far as to demand that the governing body apologise to the public for their chronic neglect and insisted that the committee appointed to run these divisions be named and held accountable.

Yesterday Tucker's position remained unchanged when he claimed "some positive steps have to be taken to clear this problem up.'' According to Tucker it is imperative to have cricket operate with several divisions. "From school cricket there should be a steady progression to youth cricket then to Reserve or First Division and then eventually to the Premier Division. But as the way things stand now our young people are deprived of the proper development process,'' he said.

Russell Richardson, a former president of St. David's who continues to work closely with their youth team, fully endorsed Tucker's remarks and added that the youth programme in particular in Bermuda has been "terrible'' ever since Shell withdrew its support three years ago.

"Nothing decent has been organised for our youngsters since the departure of Shell and the only games the youth get to play is when the teams make the arrangements themselves. This is very sad,'' said Richardson. "The board is well known for its lack of organisation when it comes to youth cricket and it's difficult to understand. There is definitely not enough cricket for them.'' On Saturday at Lord's St. David's take on Cleveland County in the Junior Eastern Counties and Cleveland's coach Wayne Smith would have liked to have seen his team more active before going into the contest.

"We've played one game and that's about all, otherwise we've been playing among ourselves. There is just nothing organised for the youth. The best way to solve the problem is to get Shell to run a junior programme again,'' said Smith.

The absence of a Reserve Division according to Smith also had a negative impact. He recalls when Cleveland had close to 50 players interested in turning out this season only to have their dreams of playing competitively shattered with no Youth and Reserve league being run.

While Tucker has become the first critic to publicly expose the board's ineptitude, it has long been known that clubs were becoming irritated over the non-existence of a Youth and Reserve (First) division -- something that is unheard of in other countries who profess cricket to be their "national'' sport.

What has made it more disturbing to clubs is that the board, on their yearly calendar, clearly identified dates for a youth and reserve division, but like so often in the past, it has once again died an unnatural death.

Several other people expressed similar views but were reluctant to give their names in fear of embarrassing their own club members who were also acting as representatives on the board.

However one of the strongest comments being made suggested that the board seemed to have their priorities out of place when they concentrate on bringing in international teams before sorting out the many domestic problems that exist.

Meanwhile, BCBC president Ed Bailey, when asked about the numerous accusations being levelled responded angrily, saying: "No club has written to the board with any complaints and none of them should be complaining.

"All we do is set up the structure and implement things like the schedule for the Youth Tournament and First Division and present it to the affiliates. We provided that and the response from the clubs was very disappointing ... and we're guided by these responses.

"Every club has a member that sits in on these meetings and knows exactly what is set out prior to the start of the season.

"We don't have the manpower to enforce or make sure that all these clubs have teams ... we're not the police ... all of us on the board are strictly volunteers.'' To this end memorandums sent to the various member clubs regarding the status of the tournaments in question were supplied to The Royal Gazette and, according to the dates of release, appeared to give each club ample time to organise their respective teams.

It was also revealed that an evening league was proposed for the First Division to stimulate play, but just three clubs -- Devonshire, Hamilton parish and Flatts -- showed interest.

Bailey implored those "individuals making noise'' against the local ruling body to "get their own house in order and learn the facts of the entire situation''.

He added that none of those "spouting at the mouth'' had offered any real solutions to the current dilemma.

"Everyone wants to criticise, but no one wants to lend a service,'' exclaimed Bailey. "Drop the responsibility where it should be dropped. I have personally begged each club to have a senior person responsible for a youth programme.

"Before one can look at a junior programme we must have people to coach them.

"For example, we had (Doug) Ferguson here this year and last to help with our junior coaching and less than half the clubs showed up.

Also noted was the fact that the BCBC had dug in their pockets to the tune of a reported $30,000 for five junior cricket camps during the summer.

But it is obvious that there is a dilemma when a prominent club like Somerset is said to have played just two matches before withdrawing after the prospect of playing further matches grew dimmer.

ST. CLAIR TUCKER -- Chastised the BCBC for failing to come to grips with problems plaguing the sport.