After a week spent assessing the fitness levels of Bermuda?s elite cricketers, the message from top sports physiologist Dr.Samuel Headley was decidedly clear.

?There is huge room for improvement,? warned the Barbadian, who is chief fitness advisor to the senior West Indies squad and currently a Professor of Exercise Science at Springfield College in Massachusetts.

Following thorough tests conducted at Police gym over the course of last week, where the entire squad was put through a strenuous regime of aerobic and anaerobic examinations, Dr.Headley conducted a lecture on Saturday morning which outlined the theory behind the tests and spelled out in detail a winter training programme for each member of the squad to pursue.

?The work that is to be done over the next 12 weeks or so will be critical,? he said.

?If the players follow my recommendations, they will get significantly fitter and I am convinced that it will give them an advantage over their opponents in what is going to be a crucial season for them if they want to get to the World Cup.?

Although he conceded that the tasks he had laid down before the players were by no means straightforward, he challenged them to commit themselves wholeheartedly to the national cause.

?I understand that all the players in Bermuda are, at the end of the day, amateurs and they have got to work and take care of their families,? he said.

?And I know what I will be asking of them over the coming months is tough. But you are only successful in anything you do if you push yourself to the limit and make sacrifices. I have heard some talk since arriving here that many cricketers in Bermuda have wilted in the past when the going has got tough.

?I would very much hope that this particular batch of cricketers will want to prove that reputation wrong and do their very best for their country.?

This message was hammered home on Saturday morning by board official Neil Speight, who in thanking Dr.Headley for taking the time to assist the development of the senior national squad, also appealed to the players to adopt a more ?rigorous and professional? approach to their preparation for the upcoming ICC Regional Americas Cup, to be hosted locally in July of next year.