Bermuda Cricket Board executive director Cal Blankendal has suggested the country should accept that the island is not an exceptional cricket-playing nation.

Speaking on the team’s elimination from the 2027 World Cup qualification process, after they finished bottom in the Super Six stage of the ICC Challenge League play-off in Malaysia, Blankendal feels the disappointment could be handled better by lowering their expectations.

While Bermuda squeezed through to the Super Six because of their superior head-to-head record over Saudi Arabia, they went on to suffer deflating losses to Tanzania, Vanuatu and Bahrain in the crossover phase of the tournament.

“We have to move away from thinking we’re such a great cricketing nation,’’ Blankendal said.

“If we were, we wouldn’t be talking about Malaysia. We’re not a great cricketing nation, we’ve had a snapshot where we did quite well from 2005 to 2007, but if you look at what’s happened after that time, there hasn’t been any consistency.

“We just have to be honest with ourselves and not have this ego that Bermuda cricket just comes out and beats everyone. If you look at the stats, we haven’t done that for quite some time.

“Maybe we just have to put a realistic view on cricket. If you look at the National Sports Policy, it doesn’t say go globally and beat everyone.

“It says be competitive regionally, now we’re competitive. We’ve won the subregional qualifier and we came second in the final qualifier, but it didn’t get us to the World Cup.

“Regionally, we’re in the top three, it’s when we go outside our region that we may be in the top eight, but you need to be in the top four to go to the next level.

“We haven’t been consistent in 50-over cricket since the 2007 World Cup, so it’s something that’s been going on for a long time. We have to figure out how we can improve.”

Blankendal pointed at certain factors that could have contributed to Cal Waldron’s side falling short.

“If we’re in season, we’re competitive,’’ he said.

“If the tournament was held between June to October, and we’re playing cricket domestically, we could have done better.

“If it’s in February-March like was the case now, and there’s no indoor facility and we don’t have the finances to go overseas for a longer period of time to acclimatise and play, it’s a challenge for us.

“The players were training but not really training to a 100 per cent capacity, based on not having outdoor cricket and lack of an indoor facility.”

On calls to dismantle the current team and start afresh with youngsters, Blankendal said that this was unrealistic.

“You need senior players to guide those youngsters,’’ Blankendal told The Royal Gazette.

“I’ve heard comments from people saying get rid of the team, but our under-19 team hasn’t been successful since 2009, so they’re not ready.

“You can’t put pressure on them to carry the national programme.”

The team returned on Wednesday, with BCB’s high-performance committee to carry out a review of the Malaysia debacle, which has cast Bermuda into deep soul-searching.

With Bermuda not expected to play any international cricket until the end of the year, when they start the process of trying to qualify for the 2026 T20 World Cup, no immediate kneejerk decisions are expected from the Lloyd Smith-led board.

“Cal Waldron is our senior team coach, until further notice, he’s our coach,” Blankendal said.

“Any other appointments or placements will have to take place, if any at all, after a review by the high-performance committee.

“There’s not going to be any kneejerk reaction because the committee will look at the reports.

“They have to sit with the coach, the players and the staff. Once we have the reports and we’ll do the analysis and figure out the direction we want cricket to take.

“We don’t have a timeline for that assessment, the players and the coaches have just returned.

“They’ll have their two weeks off to recoup, get their minds right and settle back into their environment.

“The coaching staff, management, everyone will put in their reports.

“The reports will be reviewed and then there’ll be a post-mortem.”

Bermuda’s disastrous campaign in Malaysia will hit the BCB in the pocket, something which will have an effect on the growth of the sport on the island.

“The implications of failing to qualify for the ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League mean that as an associate member, we are ineligible to play official 50-over tournaments under the ICC,’’ Blankendal added.

“We can organise our own games but there’s no official tournament for Bermuda to compete in.

“It’s always devastating because the opportunities in Bermuda are so small.

“The domestic leagues and competitions, they’re so great and fantastic, but for our players who wish to play 50-over cricket at international level to see how good they are, it’s a disappointment.

“There’s also a challenge of losing funding which would have been received to develop the 50-over format of the game.

“Funding is not a blank cheque that you get, but the funding would have been that once you qualify, you get development money to continue to try to be competitive in 50-over cricket.

“There was money that was specifically meant for this tournament, that covered the pre-tournament preparation.”