David Hemp?s arrival on the local cricket scene has raised a few eyebrows.

The Glamorgan player of the year and scorer of more than 12,000 first-class runs is working at Bermuda Cricket Board (BCB) on a variety of administrative projects, including an evaluation of school and club facilities, organising an umpires? course with a top official from overseas, looking at the possibility of an indoor net facility, as well helping draw up job descriptions for a variety of posts the Board is looking to codify.

Hemp, 35, who was born here before leaving at the age of five to move to England, is eligible for the World Cup and One-Day Internationals but needs to be involved in cricket for 100 days out of the last five years to be able to play in the Americas Cup or the Intercontinental Cup competition.

Bermuda-born Hemp arrived here late last week to work with the Board for a ten-week stint prior to the festive season and is temporarily residing in the apartment that national coach Gus Logie first occupied when he arrived here early last spring.

The player?s introduction, the Board says, was done with the knowledge of selectors, BCB executives and national team players.

But some veteran cricket administrators and players have questioned why Hemp, who left the Island when he was five years old and has played for England A, is now being brought into the Bermuda squad as it gears up for the World Cup in 2007.

?This is wrong. If he had any concerns about Bermuda then where has he been all these years?? asked former Board senior executive Rudolph Lawrence.

?It appears to me that this fellow Hemp is at the end of his rope in England and there?s no light at the end of the tunnel for him at 35 years of age. His aim was to represent England but he failed. So now all of a sudden he?s Bermudian, and the funny thing about this is that it is an Englishman who is claiming he is Bermudian.

?Somebody pulled a lot of strings behind the scenes to get this fellow here. The Board has bent over backwards to take care of a foreign player while our home-grown players have not signed any contract or agreement, or even been compensated so that they can be excused from work to commit themselves fully to World Cup preparations.?understands, however, that the Board is currently meeting with national team players to discuss possible contracts and compensation.

Another former Board executive, Dennis Wainwright, cautioned: ?I think we must be very careful here because this could cause a few problems. Some of the players are very sensitive and so we don?t want to make decisions that could affect them because they have worked very hard.?

Wainwright?s former St.George?s Cup Match team-mate Lee Raynor, added: ?I?m not fully for it and hopefully this thing works itself out. But as a former player I wouldn?t like to see anything disrupt the team?s harmony at this point in time.?

Local sports historian Warrington (Soup) Zuill, queried: ?Was the job ever advertised or was it handed to him on a silver platter? This fellow has just arrived on the Island and already he has found accommodation when many Bermudians are still looking for housing.

?I don?t doubt that he could be an asset to local cricket, but was this job handed to this fellow on a silver platter??

Hemp, who is not being remunerated for his consultative work, is here simply undertaking his 100 days cricket work required to earn him a spot in all ICC tournaments and hasn?t actually been appointed to a full-time job with the Board.