Cricketers Janeiro Tucker and Clay Smith have been charged with bringing the game into disrepute because of comments they made to the Royal Gazette before Bermuda left for the recent Americas Cup tournament in Argentina.

Both Smith and Tucker have received letters from the Bermuda Cricket Board of Control requesting they appear before a disciplinary committee on Monday.

The BCBC has issued the letters in accordance, it says, with International Cricket Council (ICC) code of conduct rules which state that players and team officials shall not make any public pronouncements or media comments when involved at the national senior level.

Considering neither player said anything remotely disparaging or detrimental against either the Board or the touring squad the charges seem somewhat strange.

The pair were original members of the touring team, however, Smith pulled out a month before they left because he found a new job and its timing conflicted with the tournament, while Tucker's lack of training saw him dropped about ten days prior to departure.

Smith's strongest comments involve the topic of the national captaincy.

He suggested that he would have been totally committed to the tour had he been chosen as skipper at an earlier stage. In the end, former skipper Charlie Marshall was brought back at the 11th hour to lead the team.

Tucker, meanwhile, publicly stated that he understood and supported the decision by several other players to pull out of the tour because of the violence on the streets of Argentina at the time.

The Board apparently believes the players were aware of the long-standing policy that national team members are not allowed to make any sort of public statement unless given authority to do so by the governing body.

When contacted yesterday to add some clarity to the matter, BCBC chief Reggie Pearman confirmed that some sort of punitive measures were pending, however, he added: "I would prefer not to make any comment on these matters until after next week's hearings."

In obvious fear of further reprisals with the start of a busy cricket season just five weeks away, neither Smith nor Tucker were prepared to comment on the matter in detail when contacted yesterday. However, both admitted to having received correspondence from the Board.

Tucker would only say that no one from the Board had approached him concerning any agreement or contract restricting him or Smith from making statements prior to the tour of Argentina.

Furthermore, he added that the only document he did in fact sign was in relation to last summer's ICC tournament in Canada.