Bermuda, be careful what you ask for!

It was merely a year ago when you, the general public, were crying for the World Cup team to be dismantled. Well on Sunday night you got your wish.

Only four out of 16 World Cup players featured for Bermuda in what many say was an embarrassing defeat. This sparked a widespread public outcry from many of our veteran players of the past. My question is who gives them the right to question what happens in Bermuda cricket?

As a player who has represented Bermuda for the last 18 years, I find it astonishing that our veteran players would dare to come out and voice their concerns about the 20/20 team publicly.

Over my years of playing for the national squad none of them have done ANYTHING to help improve Bermuda cricket at the highest level.

Of the five who boldly spoke their mind, I have yet to see one of them come to our training sessions, one of them coaching at a club level, one of them umpiring in league cricket, or one of them on the selection committee.

As a matter of fact, do they even know 20 percent of today's players? So please veterans, spare me and the rest of Bermuda of your comments until you are willing to be part of the solution and give something back to the game that you say you love.

Prime example, look at North Village's football programme with Wendell Baxter and Joe Trott playing an essential role at club level, need I say anymore.

Before I give my opinion to a solution to this mess, let me first inform you of the hard nose facts about the make-up of our 20/20 team. Our huge island of Bermuda (22 square miles) has an extremely limited pool of quality players. Of these quality players that we have, the following were unavailable: Dean, Janeiro, Kwame, Clay, Saleem, OJ, Steven, Jekon, Malachi, Chris, Rodney, Delyone, Stefan, Hurdle.

Were the selectors' hands tied with who to choose from? Yes!

The only players that the selectors could possibly have included in the team were the public's hero, Charlie Marshall, and possibly Glen Blakeley who I am surprised no one is talking about as he is without a doubt still the best on the island.

Surprised you may have been to see the roster that went to the 20/20, but the reality is did we really have a choice?

It is unfair for us to single out the foreign-based players who were eligible to play for us. Truthfully, if it was not for them we may have had to withdraw which would have been catastrophic and added further humiliation to our country.

The players we need to be addressing or criticising are the players who refuse to play for their country and those who are afraid to play because they have to be drug tested. Come on Bermuda do you feel me?

What I have not heard over the past week is someone give a solution to the problem.

Mind you, many of you have asked for heads to roll, but is that the solution? Bermuda, the solution to our problem is this. Over the next four to five years we must focus all of our energies on the under-15s and Under-13s as they have some very talented players in those two age brackets.

Our board needs to get a specialist bowling coach and a specialist batting coach to train these boys on a daily basis year round. On top of that, we must have them playing more international matches, both locally and overseas.

The mere fact is this, Bermuda if we are going to invest millions of dollars, it has to be used wisely. Right now what Bermuda needs is a Higher School of Learning for Elite Athletes - a place where athletes can go and get an education while also training full-time in their respective sport.

To the team that went I say, hold your heads up because I know within yourselves you are disappointed, but you did what many of us did not do and that was try, and for that I say, and Bermuda says, thank you.