Bermuda played their first home 50 over match on a grass wicket for two years on Tuesday night ? a development which will prick the interest of all who have followed the protracted ?soil saga? at the National Sports Centre.

And the head of the NSC Trustees Gerard Bean said yesterday they were still doing ?all they could? to improve the quality of the pitches on the North Field, which have not been used for international games since the West Indies and Barbados toured the Island in September 2004.

Bermuda are the only country set to compete in the World Cup without an accredited One Day International venue, and since qualifying the national team have had to play their cricket almost exclusively abroad.

By common consent, however, the strip used on Tuesday night in the game between a Bermuda Select XI and Clico Preysal played well, offering consistent bounce and even some decent carry with the new ball.

This was in marked contrast to the dust bowls served up in the recent past, which forced Bermuda to play three spinners in their last game there against the West Indies and saw the left-handed Dean Minors struck on the head by a ball which reared from a good length off the bowling of Trinidadian seamer Mervyn Dillon.

As revealed yesterday, the secret of this success has been the application of polyvinyl acetate glue (PVA) ? a sealant used by builders mixed with water and sprayed evenly across the pitch.

It is a technique increasingly used on county grounds across the UK, and has helped to hold the soil together for longer and sometimes produce greater pace and bounce.

NSC head groundsman Trevor Madeiros uncovered the technique while researching what options were available to improve the square without re-laying it with soil from overseas.

But while admitting the PVA glue option represented ?a very positive step forward?, Dr. Bean warned yesterday that everything was still very much in the experimental stages.

?We have always made clear that we will do everything on our power to try and improve the quality of the surface at the stadium to try and meet international standards,? he said.

?Trevor approached me with the idea and I authorised him to use the substance and I?m glad to hear that the wicket played well on Tuesday night.

?But I think it?s important to stress that we are still looking at all the options and we do not saying that this is the answer to our problems. This is not the end of the experiment and we will always strive to find and use different methods to improve the quality of the wickets.?

National coach Gus Logie was certainly pleased with what he saw.

?I must compliment the curators for producing what I thought was a good wicket,? he said.

?It played pretty true and offered a little bit to everybody. It?s very encouraging that we are now in a position where we can play some sort of game on that square. How this will affect our ability to bring in more sides from overseas I don?t know, but I?m pleased we?ve got to this stage.?

Meanwhile, behind the scenes the Ministry of the Environment is reportedly still in the process of compiling a report on whether it would be possible to safely import foreign soil without putting the local eco-system at risk to harmful organisms and microbes.

Repeated testing of various different samples from across the Island has shown that Bermuda does not possess any soil with the recommended clay content for international-standard pitches.