Legendary Bermuda bowler Clarence Parfitt has called for a complete "shake-up" of local cricket in the aftermath of this week's slaughter at the hands of the visiting Barbados national team.

Speaking from his home in Scotland, Parfitt described local cricket as being in a "bad state of affairs".

"I think there is something wrong internally and everybody has to come together and sort it out because these players have pride - they like to play against overseas opposition," he said, referring to the no-shows by several prominent players.

"When you read where we are getting bowled out for a hundred . . . no way would that have happened 15 or 20 years ago and I think it is time for a real shake-up."

The visiting Bajans swept the four-match series convincingly against last minute makeshift local selects after several of the Island's prominent players declined invitations to play.

"There is an underlying reason why these players aren't making themselves available," suggested Parfitt. "And it is sooner rather than later that we should solve this problem, otherwise we will continue to go backwards.

"It is something else and they (players) are all quiet because as soon as they open their mouths they are going to get banned. You cannot tell a person he can't speak his mind because then it becomes a dictatorship."

Bermuda, said Parfitt, had "to wake up and look at the bigger picture".

"We have to look at what's going to benefit us as a nation and not as an individual club. I just have to shake my head at what is going on in Bermuda and I am concerned because our cricket seems as though it is going backwards rather than forwards.

"Just reading how players refused to play . . . that would have never happened during my era right up to the mid 1980s. But since then it is like our cricket has just gone backwards, and we are still going backwards. I think that it is high time that we start to go forwards. The administration has to sit and down and decide which way they want to go and how they are going to do it."

As for national pride, Parfitt said it no longer existed.

"The Board (Bermuda Cricket Board) have to find a way of getting that pride back and getting the players to get involved again," said Parfitt, current vice-president at Arbroath Cricket Club and a regional manager for cricket in Scotland.

"Right now it just looks like there's nothing there and it is hurting Bermuda cricket because we have to get some pride back. The whole outlook has got to change. We just have to get some pride back in Bermuda."

Parfitt also called on Government to step in and lend a hand.

"I think because Government put a lot of money into it (cricket) maybe it is high time they step in and get to the root of this problem because right now we aren't going anywhere.

"A big forum or something else has to called so that we can sort out this problem because soon we will be trying to qualify for the World Cup again and if we are not ready then we are just going to go back even further."