National coach Mark Harper says the cricket fraternity must put the Jason Anderson issue behind them and rally around the squad for next week?s Americas Cricket Championships.

Refusing to answer several questions surrounding Anderson?s non-selection, which prompted those chosen for the national team to vow not to represent Bermuda, Harper stressed: ?We have a competition to play and right now our focus is supposed to be on that.?

?My focus is getting prepared for that. I don?t have time to get involved in this controversy.

?That?s a distraction to the cricket. Whatever it is, we have to get it solved and we?ve got to move on.?

The coach revealed he met with Anderson ? who was a late addition to the training squad ? yesterday and discussed the team selection. He told the St. George?s wicket keeper batsman that selectors met and picked a team that did not include him. However, many fellow players voiced disbelief at Anderson?s exclusion which some speculate was linked to his disciplinary record.

Whatever their beliefs, Harper is urging players and the public to concentrate on the task at hand as Bermuda face stiff competition from five visiting countries.

?The selectors met and they came up with a squad. What we need to do is to go out there and support the team which was selected,? he said.

?We have to try and get over this. We?ve got cricket to play. It?s an unfortunate incident but, if we?ve really got Bermuda?s cricket at heart, we need to get over this.?

Harper had few words otherwise on the contentious matter which erupted on Tuesday night at the National Sports Centre after he announced Bermuda?s squad for the regional tournament.

?At this point I have nothing to say. I?m not getting into that,? he declared.

Among the questions to which he declined responding were:

If a player, who was not initially in the training squad, could be invited to training by a single selector or if it had to be a collective decision by the selection panel (Harper termed this query ?irrelevant?);

did he invite Anderson to join the national training squad;

did the Bermuda Cricket Board?s (BCB) executive know Anderson had joined the national training squad at the point when he joined or did they find that out afterwards;

was it true that, prior to last Wednesday?s match versus Lloyd?s Cricket Club (in which Anderson played), he was informed that the executive did not want Anderson to be involved in the national squad at all; and,

whether he was happy with the current national selection process.

Harper also refuted adamantly that he favoured Anderson?s selection, as indicated in yesterday?s , stating: ?I never said that to the Press.?

Pressed on whether he told other players that Anderson was his preferred choice, the coach at first maintained his stance that he never said such but later altered his words slightly to ?I don?t remember saying anything like that last night (Tuesday) but I?m not going to get into that?.

One point which he took great pains to highlight was that, when the national squad was first assembled late last year, selectors said up front that ?when the season starts, anybody who the selectors feel is performing well would be included?.

?The selectors always had that option,? said Harper.