Despite 20 years of residence outside his homeland, revered seam bowler Clarence Parfitt has remained vocal from afar, expressing concern about Bermuda?s cricket demise in recent times.

Earlier this year, while visiting the Island during the Belco Cup, the man who wants the job of national cricket coach lambasted local cricketers for failing to comprehend the essentials of the game?s abbreviated format.

?We have yet to grasp the fundamentals of limited-overs cricket. All we are trying to do is hit the ball outside of the park. Far too many balls are being hit in the air and not on the ground in search of the singles,? he noted as he watched a match at St. David?s.

?The bowling isn?t good on both sides of the wicket while the player?s discipline and fitness didn?t look too good either...we still need to work on a combination of things because the basics of one-day cricket are not being utilised here.?

The former Cup Match hero and inaugural Sports Hall of Fame inductee ? who reads daily online ? also had no qualms about calling for a complete ?shake-up? in local cricket after Barbados? national team slaughtered diluted Bermudian squads in four matches last year.

Describing local cricket as being in a ?bad state of affairs? back then, he insisted something must be ?wrong internally? for prominent players to shy away from national selection as was the case.

?When you read where we are getting bowled out for a hundred . . . no way would that have happened 15 or 20 years ago and I think it is time for a real shake-up,? he said.

?There is an underlying reason why these players aren?t making themselves available and we should solve this problem sooner rather than later, otherwise we will continue to go backwards.

?Just reading how players refused to play . . . that would have never happened during my era right up to the mid 1980s. But since then it is like our cricket has just gone backwards, and we are still going backwards. I think that it is high time that we start to go forwards. The administration has to sit and down and decide which way they want to go and how they are going to do it.?

Clearly aware of recent punishments meted out by the Bermuda Cricket Board (BCB), the former pro noted players were ?all quiet? about whatever was happening ?because as soon as they open their mouths they are going to get banned?.

He decried a policy that forbids a person from speaking their mind, noting that smacks of a dictatorship.

Given his concern for the declining standards and pride in cricket here, it?s no great surprise he is set to offer his services to the national sport.

Parfitt, believed by many to be the greatest bowler in Cup Match history, enjoyed a spectacular debut in 1965, mesmerising opposing batsmen. He snapped up seven for 20 in the first innings and eight for 23 in the second. In 1976, he nearly bowled out the entire Somerset team, seizing astonishing figures of nine for 47 in the first innings.

The Bermudian wonder later duplicated that feat at Lord?s in London, pocketing nine wickets for 128 runs while representing Stenhousemuir against the MCC.

He migrated to Scotland to play professionally at Arbroath Cricket Club where he is now vice-president.