Missing players - it's the same old song
THE excuses came thick and fast.
Work commitments, family commitments, Causeway closed, not feeling well . . .
And, to be fair, after the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Fabian, it may be that many were valid.
But, unfortunately, the miserable turn-out from Bermuda's top cricketers invited to play against the visiting Barbadians in the last week was all too familiar.
Deja vu perhaps. We'd heard and seen it all before.
Similar apathy prevailed last year when Bermuda Cricket Board attempted to assemble a squad for the regional international tournament in Argentina.
Nobody wanted to play. Everybody had an excuse.
Sadly it's been that way with Bermuda cricket for some time.
Players aren't at all interested in training and only a handful enthusiastic about the prospect of representing their country.
A few years ago, players would have crawled across broken glass to have been the given the chance to play and perhaps impress against some of the world's best.
But not this lot. They couldn't care less - or at least that's the impression they give.
Clay Smith, of course, is one of the rare exceptions. Much like his elder brother before him, he lives and breathes the game. He ducks no-one, relishes the challenge of playing the best and almost always gives his all - even when not fully fit as was the case last weekend.
Clay might have his critics, and he hasn't always seen eye to eye with the game's hierarchy. But nobody can question his commitment, his ambition and his passion.
The same can't be said of too many of the Island's other top players.
One of such was even reportedly seen watching last Sunday's Charity Cup soccer match at BAA Field, having earlier declined the invitation to play against Barbados.
Hopefully his name has now been scratched off any future list to be considered for national team duty.
As coach Mark Harper pointed out soon after his arrival a couple of years ago, many local cricketers put far more emphasis on playing Cup Match than playing internationally.
Representing one's country doesn't appear to be seen as a privilege or an honour.
And that's perhaps why the standard of the local game has dropped to the appalling level at which it now finds itself.
Those that have the talent aren't prepared to make the sacrifices required to again make Bermuda a force.
Several lack any sense of national pride.
Somerset Cricket Club, and their cricket chief Anthony Bailey in particular, went to enormous lengths to ensure the Barbados tour could still proceed, despite the effects of Fabian.
Yet their efforts have been barely appreciated, least of all by some of the players for whose benefit the four matches were designed.
The west end club insist they'll do it all again next year, and the year after in order to play their part in the development of the game.
But they can't be too sure.
Why on earth would the Barbados players want to return? They can find better opposition on any club ground back home, and certainly in almost any other Caribbean island.
This tour was supposed to offer their players some serious preparation for the prestigious Red Stripe Bowl of which they are the current champions.
Instead they rolled over opponents with farcical ease.
Their bowlers carved through the local bats like a knife through butter and their batsmen dispatched our bowlers to all parts of the ground, expending as much effort as if they were swatting flies.
For their part, the trip quickly turned into an exercise in futility.
Barbados might not be a Test team, but they are the Caribbean champions and they do include some of the region's top talent. Several in the squad have played at Test level and there are more than a few who aspire to reach that standard.
Bermuda could have shown them the courtesy of fielding its strongest side in one the four matches.
The result may well have been the same - humiliating defeat - but at least we would have got some idea of where Bermuda stands on the regional ladder.
But then again, we already know that.
Rock bottom.
- ADRIAN ROBSON