month is causing their skipper grave concern.

The situation was magnified on Sunday when they fielded only eight players for their away game against Police, which was a situation that baffled skipper Andre Manders.

"It doesn't look good at all when a big club like ours struggles to field a team, it is definitely something that has to be looked into,'' said the skipper whose team is currently 10th in the Open League.

He admitted that it has been a difficult season, especially when they have seldom been able to field the same team on consecutive weekends for various reasons. At times it has even been frustrating, said Manders.

"It's something that the officials have to investigate because we cannot go on like this. We are going to have to recruit or have to persuade the players to become more involved,'' he said.

Opening batsmen Dwight Basden does not feel that there was a crisis though, pointing out that Sunday was tough day in that two players were involved in a wedding and a few others just were unavailable. "We will be all right, I don't think there is a big problem,'' he said.

But Manders appears to be viewing the situation with grave concern, hinting that added responsibility has been placed on his shoulders as a result of the difficulty that exists in finding players. Just a few weeks ago veteran James Swan was persuaded to come out of retirement to assist them.

"Three of the young players have returned to school abroad, which has hurt us and the fact that brothers Gladwin and Rahji Edness have not come out has made it tough as well. There just appears to be a lack of interest among some who have played in the past,'' said Manders.

Somerset have even been forced to withdraw their team from the Shell Youth league through lack of interest, but Manders is happy to see that Michael Donawa is one of its members who has stayed on to assist the senior team.

The skipper was really upset on September 6 his team were at home to neighbours Somerset Bridge. "Even at home we could do no better than field 10 players, and believe it or not Somerset Bridge showed up with 14. That alone proved that we have to look into our overall programme,'' he said.

Kevin Saunders, chairman of the selection committee, said: "I don't view the situation as being a real serious crisis, most clubs have these sorts of problems late in the cricket season.

"We have been naming squads for matches but the players just haven't been notifying us in time that they cannot make it at the last minute. They come to train and everything looks good going into the weekend, then when Sunday comes they are nowhere to be seen.

"They usually call and let me or the captain know in advance, but here lately this hasn't been happening.'' WHAT'S UP DOC? -- Somerset skipper Andre Manders is perplexed by his players' indifference.