erched in the standsoverlooking the field at Somerset Cricket Club during Bermuda?s match against Argentina in the Americas Championship, a particularly well-oiled spectator pronounced that he would rather ?jump off the top of the Empire State building than be forced to take on the ?impossible? job of Neil Speight at the Bermuda Cricket Board?.

Indeed, from the outside looking in, the task of the BCB?s chief executive and treasurer does appear a somewhat thankless one at first glance.

As the only full-time administrator at the governing body, he is confronted by almost innumerable headaches, from the constant sniping of a cricketing fraternity which has made criticising the governing body an almost daily pastime to a club scene which perpetually struggles with limited finances, horrendous facilities and crumbling clubhouses.

Speight, however, makes light of these difficulties, saying he enjoys the challenge and he remains determined to improve Bermuda?s cricketing fortunes.

?Every job has it?s frustrations,? he said.

?But the positives of my role far outweigh the negatives for me, even if I think we at the Board are sometimes treated pretty shabbily by certain sections of the media and by some individuals. But I?m happy with the accomplishments we?ve pulled off so far and I am passionate about ensuring that Bermuda?s cricket programme becomes something significant.?

Arriving in Bermuda in 1989, he worked initially for a variety of different companies including PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Staples before eventually becoming president of Logic.

A keen cricketer in his day, as captain he resurrected a floundering Nationals side on the point of extinction in the mid-1990?s and played in the Eastern Counties competition for Flatts.

It was back in 1998 that Speight first volunteered to fulfil an unpaid role as the Board?s treasurer and since then his responsibilities have grown considerably.

Though many within local cricket know him only as the Board?s treasurer, in September 2003 the Board executive appointed him full-time as their first chief executive ? an implicit recognition that the International Cricket Council?s increasingly stringent demands on all its associate members necessitated a more professional approach to cricket administration.

With the appointment has come numerable positive initiatives which Speight promises are ?just the beginning?.

With the Bank of Bermuda Foundation and XL to the fore, the BCB now receives more wide-ranging corporate support than at any time in its history, and Speight says he is hopeful this will continue to improve.

He was instrumental in establishing the technical committee over the past winter which made a number of much-needed improvements while last year he secured two annual places at the University of Port Elizabeth International Cricket Academy in South Africa.

Furthermore, Speight also negotiated a scholarship for St. David?s? 15-year-old seam bowler Stefan Kelly at Oakham School in the UK, which boasts one of the best cricket programmes in the country under the direction of coach Frank Hayes, formerly of Lancashire and England.

He is convinced that sending the Island?s young cricketers away both to continue their educaton and gain greater cricketing exposure is crucial for the future well being of Bermudian cricket.

?Stefan Kelly?s scholarship to Oakham was a flagship initiative,? he said.

?As far as we are concerned, there are no boundaries to it. If we can find the finances and the candidates who can meet the academic requirements of the institutions we have come to an agreement with, we would be very keen to have more young people going away. It does a tremendous amount for their development as people and as cricketers.?

Without doubt, the biggest challenge that confronts Speight and other Board officials on a day-to-day basis is the paucity of money available to them.

Despite his innovative lobbying of the corporate sector, it is clear that Bermudian cricket is fighting an uphill battle following the decision of the ICC last year to drastically slash the amount of money it gives to members in the aftermath of a financially disastrous World Cup in South Africa.

The world governing body is being forced to tighten its financial belt yet further in the face of the ongoing $49 million law suit with the media conglomerate, the Global Cricket Corporation, which is seeking compensation on a number of fronts, including the cancellation of two fixtures scheduled for television because of security concerns in Kenya and Zimbabwe.

The lack of funds also contributed to the ICC?s decision to scrap a new divisional competition which was going to be introduced amongst the affiliate members in late 2002 to replace the regional tournaments still currently employed ? the sudden announcement of which caught the BCB completely off-guard and scuppered the Board?s plans for the national team in 2003.

Speight admitted this sudden drop off in financial assistance from the ICC has made his job ?doubly difficult? but said he would continue to work with Government and the Board?s corporate partners to fund ideas which would benefit the game.

?There is no Fairy Godmother unfortunately,? he said.

?It has been more of a struggle since the ICC slashed our funding and many of the things we would have liked to have done ? like given our national team a comprehensive warm-up programme for this summer?s tournaments ? had to be put on hold.?

?But what we have achieved up to now,? he continued,? has been very encouraging and I can assure people that I am doing everything I can to make sure we acquire as much money as possible, whether it be from Government or the corporate sector.?

When asked how far, realistically, he felt Bermuda cricket could go given the right amount of investment, Speight came across as cautious and optimistic in the same breath.

?I have to question whether we can ever reach full One Day International status,? he said.

?I say this simply because our programme is dwarfed by those such as Canada, Kenya and the US. They have many more cricketers than we do and we simply cannot compete with those numbers.?

?But I do not see any reason,? he said,? why if we do not continue to improve our infrastructure and develop our young players with cricket scholarships and tours abroad, we cannot be the most powerful cricketing nation in the region in the next few years. After that, who knows what is possible??

Speight conceded, however, that the continued absence of a state-of-the-art national cricket academy was a setback to the Board?s plans and repeated the mantra of a long line of cricket administrators who have said that it is part of their plans ? without being able to lay down any sort of tangible timeframe.

?The academy is something we have always been very keen on and it would be a hugely significant addition to the programme,? he said.

?We have shared our desire to have a facility like this with Government and there is a continuing dialogue with them to see if we can get it. Having an academy would make the national coach?s job a hell of a lot easier and we could launch a significantly more coherent youth programme from a central base with modern indoor and outdoor facilities.?

?But it would have to be a country-wide decision, partly funded with public money ? though we would also be interested in finding a title sponsor from the corporate community.?

As a caveat to this, Speight was insistent that an academy was not the ?be all and end all? and that cricket could make ?significant progress? without it in the meantime.

Turning to the ongoing saga of Bermuda?s World Cup bid, Speight said that despite last week?s official trip to Jamaica to meet with the West Indies Cricket Board, ICC and Cricket World Cup officials, the BCB still did not know which warm-up games Bermuda would be allocated or what exactly is required of the Island in its role as the ?first alternate? venue.

He did, however, take issue with the increasingly prevalent argument that the bid was a waste of time and that the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on public relations consultancy fees would have been better spent on making sure that the Island?s cricket clubs are better equipped.

?I personally believe those who take that line are wrong,? he said.

?There is no reason why we cannot develop ourselves into a first class host venue and you cannot view the World Cup bid and our infrastructural development as mutually exclusive either. The trickle down effects in terms of finances would be hugely significant if we hosted World Cup games and I believe the bid was designed to be of benefit to all in Bermudian cricket.?

?It was also not just a cricketing decision,? he continued.

?The bid touched every single Government department from transport, communications and security and having gone through the process of trying to host, I think the whole country has derived an enormous benefit. Even if we don?t come out with anything, we have drastically improved our global profile and reputation from a cricket and tourism perspective.?

Despite the progress he is quite rightly proud of, Speight acknowledged that he has much work to do ? from trying to do something about the dilapidated facilities at many club grounds to the increasingly pressing need to establish cricket as a major influence in our schools once again.

?I don?t think I could ever sit here and tell you there is not something that needs to be improved,? he said.

?We are often accused of not doing enough to foster the development of cricket in schools but I think those opinions are ill-informed. Certainly it is true to say that not everybody in the school system is responding to our lobbying. That is clear ? but we do make every effort to ensure our presence is felt.?

Speight argued that national coach Mark Harper had travelled to a large number of schools in the winter to persuade them to make cricket a more important part of their athletic curricula while he also pointed out that Harper had hosted a coaching course for school PE teachers in the spring as well as a ?Youth Cricket Day? at Police Field to which all schools and clubs were invited and which ultimately attracted over 80 kids.

Speight was content to admit that the ?feeder link? between schools and the club system was not as smooth as it should be, but argued also that their was nothing to stop club sides going into the schools near them to sign up new recruits.

?I admit that we at the Board have more to do on this front,? he said.

?But we cannot do everything and sometimes we are constrained by the inefficiency of our collective ambition. I think everyone in cricket would be better off if the clubs would do more to help themselves. Some are perhaps not as organised and ambitious as they could be but the fact is the more they can do, the better off Bermuda cricket will be.?

The Board?s Chief Executive concluded with a heartfelt plea to the local cricketing community.

?Whatever difficulties arise over the coming months and years, I would like to implore all those in local cricket to work together,? he said.

?Collectively we can increase participation levels, improve our infrastructure and the standards on the field of play. Cricket is such an important part of Bermudian society, so let?s move forward together and see if we can?t develop a cricket programme we can be proud of.?