Bermuda are off to South America in a little more than a month to compete in the Americas Cup, but the governing body for cricket on the Island are no closer to naming Charlie Marshall’s successor as captain than when the 27-man training squad was announced last October.

The hang-up, it is believed, is over political correctness with four senior players now considered to be in the frame for the second-leading high-profile position in local cricket.

With coach Mark Harper off the Island until next week, the national team have been on a Christmas training break, but it is felt widely that the hiatus is more of a perpetual nature, given the poor attendance at weekend sessions to date.

Nevertheless, a new captain is needed and, in the failure of Bermuda Cricket Board of Control to make such an appointment well before the new year, let alone selecting the first national team to travel since the ICC Trophy debacle, The Royal Gazette <$>has taken a stab at the topic, if for no other reason than to raise public consciousness.

The four players believed to figure prominently in the Board’s thoughts are Herbie Bascome, Clay Smith, Albert Steede and Janeiro Tucker. In alphabetical order, the prospects of each are assessed:

Herbie Bascome

<*The former St. George’s captain is perhaps the long shot of the four to accede to the post of national captain; and there will probably be a few raised eyebrows that he is even in the picture but, such is the Board’s predicament, the net is cast far wider than anticipated.

Although he is the eldest of the four — he will be 38 in July — Bascome is the least experienced at the international level and most tactically naive, having made his debut as recently as 1997. A brief stint as St. David’s captain followed by two years in charge at the Cup Match club show little evidence that the fast-medium bowler, who was previously better known for his exploits on the football pitch, is the man to lead Bermuda into the next ICC Trophy Tournament.

However, national pride courses as thickly through his veins as any of the other three, if not more so, and he will be accepted universally by the players, if not the public. He would be a safe bet, if the Board were looking at his appointment as a stop-gap measure.

Clay Smith

<*The St. David’s captain has been central to the difficulties concerning the national captaincy since March 1997, when Albert Steede resigned the position upon his return from the troubled tour of Malaysia for the ICC Trophy Tournament.

After the caretaker captaincy of Arnold Manders for the 1997 Red Stripe Bowl in Jamaica, where Smith played a significant role with two unbeaten centuries, the former St. George’s captain was all set to be named as the new man in charge but proceeded to earn a year’s suspension, which gave birth to the four-year reign of Charlie Marshall.

In the interim, Smith, who turns 31 later this month, has rarely been out of the headlines — but for the wrong reasons.

There was the quite sensational transfer from St. George’s to St. David’s, a move that saw him villified in certain sectors of the east end, and a second suspension in 1999, shockingly for the same offence as the first.

However, after a trouble-free 2000 season where his only indiscretion was to declare that he would never play for St. George’s again after being dropped for the first Cup Match of the new millennium, Smith’s stock rose enough in the Board’s estimation for him to be named vice-captain to Marshall for the ICC Trophy Tournament in Toronto.

But his behaviour during the 100th Cup Match, before which his appointment was deemed a fait accompli, was the equivalent of a public relations disaster, and that is surely what the media-conscious Board president, El James, is keen to avoid.

The positive for Smith is that he more than foots the bill as a captain. His St. David’s team won every title made available to them last season and did so in such a dominant fashion that there were calls for Smith to be the next Bermuda captain, even if much of the prompting came predictably from St. George’s South.

Albert Steede<$>

<*Steede has been the poster boy for Bermuda cricket almost since his high-scoring feats in the 1985 International Youth Tournament, which was won on local soil.

As of late, though, such a designation has served to be more of an albatross around the 33-year-old’s neck than a help.

In a leading candidate for How Quickly They Forget, Steede led Western Stars to an all-conquering 2000 season, crowned by winning Cup Match for Somerset in his second season in charge, and remains the epitome of fitness in an era when our athletes are dreadfully out of shape.

However, Steede fits also into the category of Been There, Done That, after a four-year run as Bermuda captain that began in 1993. In one of the least popular decisions made by the Ed Bailey administration, an inexperienced Steede was appointed to lead a team in which all but two of the 1994 ICC Trophy Tournament regulars surpassed him in age and tenure at the international level.

The modern version is much-improved from both a tactical and man-management standpoint but is countered by a general distrust of his methods, although no one, from the Board to Western Stars to Somerset, will go on record to say as such.

Janeiro Tucker

<*Man of the moment after his record-breaking feats at the 100th Cup Match, Tucker would have been captain today if he wanted it, which is exactly the point. With the position at a crossroads after Clay Smith’s untimely suspension in 1998, Tucker was the first choice of the El James administration to captain Bermuda for the Red Stripe Bowl commitment in Guyana. But he refused the post and Charlie Marshall was plucked from international exile, after he was blacklisted for indiscipline in Malaysia, in the present administration’s first example of a quick fix.

To confirm the theory that Tucker aspires to the position least among the aforementioned candidates, the 26-year-old’s explanation then was that he wanted to be “just one of the boys”.

However, he has since been promoted as captain of Southampton Rangers the past two seasons and, again, is in the throes of public acclaim after his heroics at Cup Match. On a down side, Tucker’s work ethic is the subject of question and, with an example to be set for 26 others, that could prove a significant consideration for the decision-makers.

OVERVIEW<$z$>

With all things being equal, any combination of Clay Smith and Albert Steede as captain and vice-captain would be ideal. But this is Bermuda, where the ideology that “easy is better than hard” was dispensed with long ago.

Smith, with all his public failings, provides the biggest bull’s-eye for the critics of such an appointment. But he is savvy and will gain the most support from the players, although that should not be the single-most consideration.

Promises that his temper or sometimes arrogant approach will not get the better of him should not be made because they are not likely to be kept over the long haul, such is the history. Take it or leave it, that is Clay Smith. So the Board, if it wants to go that route, has to be aware of that.

Albert Steede is not very far behind Smith in terms of strategy and man management and their relationship over the years has improved to such an extent that either would be willing to play under the other. But Steede’s squeaky-clean image and his prior willingness to accept the responsibility before his time, are significant handicaps.

Any other scenario may have adverse ramifications although Janeiro Tucker as Bermuda captain, if you are looking to the future and given the youthful make-up of the present squad, has the best ring to it. However, there is the suspicion that he might fit the bill more appropriately as conscientious objector and that is no way to come back after the disaster of Toronto.

Herbie Bascome’s best attribute is as leader of the (seam bowling) line and voice of reason in times of discord. But, after the supposed stop-gap appointment of Charlie Marshall that extended to four years, the Board would be ill-advised to go that route again.