Holland will be no pushover for Bermuda when the two teams meet in the Intercontinental Cup in South Africa today, former national team stalwart Noel Gibbons has warned.

There are few better to give an accurate appraisal of the team from the Netherlands than Gibbons, the allrounder who played for Bermuda in five ICC tournaments.

There is no doubt that he is uniquely qualified to do so having played against them on at least three occasions in ICC play. He played in ICC tournaments in 1979, 1982 and 1986 in England and 1990 in Holland and 1994 in Kenya.

Stunned over Bermuda?s lack of success in Kenya where the local team succumbed to three straight losses, Gibbons also reckons that there could be further frustration facing Logie?s team unless the players show they are capable of improving their individual performances by a significant margin.

?Holland will be not easy for them, that?s for sure? he said. ?Against us, I recall them being a solid team with a well structured group of players compared to us back then.?

?Logie is going to have to find a way to get our players to do something extra because Holland have a reputation of being a very classy, tidy and well-drilled bunch of players. I truly believe that Bermuda will be hard pressed to brush them off.?

According to Gibbons, the two areas which Bermuda desperately need to improve on opening batting and opening bowling ? but he stressed that opening batting is in dire need of attention.

One step towards finding a resolution here is to promote Clay Smith to the position, he claims, pointing out that the skipper still is one of the more dependable batsmen in the team.

?Clay could be our answer to the problems there. Too often Bermuda has been forced to struggle after the openers have been unable to do their job,? he said.

?We saw it in Kenya time and time again, the three defeats there were disappointing. I thought we would have won at least one of the games there, but we came away suffering heavy defeats.

?I know in Steve Tikolo Kenya had a classy bat and he seems to have a liking for Bermuda as I recall him scoring plenty of runs off us as well. But we really have to get our batting in order.?

Another solution to their batting woes, reckons Gibbons, is to have veteran Charlie Marshall recalled, especially after the player has made it public that he was ready to make amends with the Bermuda Cricket Board.

Gibbons notes that Marshall has proven himself once again when he was the top bat in domestic cricket the past season.

?I always thought Charlie would have strengthened the team where it was needed, he?s still the best we have in the country. With the beatings we have taken so far at the international level, why not try him?

?To be honest I feel very comfortable with Clay forming part of the opening duo and then having Hemp coming in at number three followed by Irving Romaine, Charlie, Janeiro Tucker and Lionel Cann sixth.

?We have to try something different because things are just not working out the way it is now.?