When I thought I couldn’t be any more discouraged by the happenings with cricket in Bermuda, last weekend made me feel as if there is no hope for the sport in our country.For a game that I eat, sleep, and drink for, I never thought I would contemplate giving up on this sport. As a coach, I am obligated to give my all to cricket as I want to see our country move forward but the attitude and approach towards the game by some of our senior players is despicable and in some cases embarrassing.I suppose my passion and love for cricket far surpasses the conduct and commitment of our modern day players. Here we have a national coach being innovative by implementing positive changes by initiating an elite league in the mix of our regular league.The objective of this league is to have our better cricketers playing against each other on a regular basis, which should in the long run improve our overall cricket. With the nonchalant approach displayed by some players there is no point in running it.Players show up when or whatever time they choose, hence the quality of the league is nowhere near the level that we as coaches envisioned. In essence it is a major disappointment. Our players have to start being more honest with themselves about where they want to go in the game and what they want to get from the game.There is no excuse for being late for a game in Bermuda. How big is the Island again?If this is what we are witnessing in the so-called elite league, then why would my expectations of the regular league be so high? Silly me!An example Social Club started their game last weekend with eight players as three players turned up late. St. George’s was not much better either. My captain took the toss at 10:40 for an 11 o’clock start and two of my top players were nowhere to be found, so I had to replace them.Fortunately, I had two reserves one of whom was an Under-14 player who was very keen and eager to play and as coach I didn’t hesitate to play him, sticking to our principles for our programme and rewarding him for his commitment, dedication and love of the game.As a coach, you choose a team that you feel can get the job done after the hard work put in during training. It is never expected that come game day that players would blatantly disrespect their team-mates and the programme by simply not showing up or being extremely tardy without a reasonable excuse.If our cricket is to move forward we have to address these issues and implement our standards no matter what the cost. Until clubs start to refuse to compromise their principles in putting winning over club policy then the problems will continue to escalate. Make the structure of your programme is the most important thing so that when winning starts to happen it will continue and the jubilation behind the win will be that much sweeter.With the St. George’s game finishing early, I was in a position to watch the game of the week between St. David’s and Southampton Rangers.While I was quick to predict that Rangers would once again win the league title I was astonished by their behaviour. It is no secret that Rangers are accustomed to winning most of the time. However, their lack of grace shocked me when they started to lose.They have forgotten how to lose gracefully in order to keep their dignity intact. The display that I saw at Lord’s St. David’s was unfitting of champions.Champions are classy and humble when required to be. All I could do on Sunday was look at the bench and shake my head.You have some of Bermuda’s most talented youngsters coming through as most of them are involved with the Under-13 and Under-15 Bermuda national programmes. So it is imperative that you as senior players act a certain way whereby these youngsters will be proud to associate themselves with you for the right reasons.With all of this negativity, I did witness something positive with the top two teams in the East, Bailey’s Bay and St. George’s in the Under-14 league. What a treat!These young players didn’t disappoint me as I saw some entertaining cricket displayed by some talented youngsters. So impressed was I that I am considering playing some of my Under-14s in my senior team during 20/20 this weekend to introduce them to senior cricket.As a country we need to invest in our young players. I honestly feel we need to move our Under-14 league to Saturdays and have them play 30-over cricket instead of 20 overs. Give these younger players more overs and time to play, as they are our future.This would help develop their batting and bowling skills as they would be able to bat longer and bowl more overs. I strongly urge and encourage cricket fans to go and watch the Under-14 league. You will be fascinated with the talent that we still have here in Bermuda.Time and time again, I ask when are we going to invest in a Sports Academy so that we can steer our future talent in the right direction, or are we going to sit idle and watch another generation of quality players go to waste.Cricket tip of the week: Coaches give your players “What If” scenarios so that when a situation arrives in a game they have a better understanding of how they can deal with it. Example, what if we are batting and the team is 180 for 8 with ten overs to go, what should we be looking to do? Another example, what if we are fielding and the score is 230 for 7 and one batsman is on 80 with ten overs to go, what should we as a team be looking to do? These discussions will help your team to better handle pressure situations as players will have an idea of what they should be doing. To take it one step further you can even practise these scenarios as a team during training