This past week has seen a strong Namibia team pulverise our Bermuda national cricket team. Having to play four-day cricket for the first time since last summer exposed Bermuda's inexperience at the longer version of the game. The big question is will we ever be good enough to make the adjustment from one-day cricket to the longer version?

It is very unfortunate that our best players do not make themselves available at all times to represent our country. We continue to shoot ourselves in the foot in this area.

Looking at the game between Bermuda and Namibia, we lacked discipline in the batting area and our bowling was poor.

When are we going to overcome the patience factor that is needed in the longer game? It's not rocket science to figure out that there is no race to score runs in a four-day game. It is time that we stop accepting that scoring 30 or 40 runs is a milestone accomplishment.

What good is constructive criticism if you offer no solutions? So here are my suggestions:

Firstly, to correct or improve our patience we have to make it mandatory that all national team members play the open one-day cricket league and bat early in their league teams to develop the skills of batting with resilience. Far too many national team players do not even play the longer version of the game locally, or if they do, they bat in the bottom half of the order giving other players a chance to bat instead of working on their own game. We have to realise that we have not reached the stage of being good enough to allow others a chance to bat when we still have many aspects of batting to work on ourselves.

From a technical point of view, players have to be willing to work one on one with the coach and with the video analyst to identify their own weaknesses and work hard to correct it. Their technical flaws do not show up locally because the standard is poor but internationally the bowlers pinpoint these weaknesses immediately and take delight in exposing them.

Far too many of our batsmen are not selfish enough to want to score the most runs. The mindset of knowing that many players struggle at the higher level, they are satisfied with 30 or 40 runs to the point of feeling as if something major has been accomplished but in actual fact they have let the team down. Players have to train their minds to think big (scoring a 100 runs). When playing the four-day game the philosophy should be – keep it extremely simple. Don't try to invent shots, don't get tired of batting, and have the desire to be successful.

Recalling from a previous article, I stated that our bowlers would have to be mentally tough and show their character as the wickets in Namibia are first class and offer bowlers very little assistance. Unfortunately, our bowlers lacked penetration, lacked variety and lacked consistency, which made scoring easy for Namibia.

Bermuda, it is time we hired a specialist bowling coach to work with all of our bowlers, young and old, on a full-time basis. Our bowlers have become accustomed to bowling at one pace, they very rarely use the width of the wicket and they only swing the ball one-way.

Once a quality batsman analyses this, his job is made easy and will score runs against us at will. Let's fix the wickets here in Bermuda so that bowlers don't look better than what they are. The tremendous amount of assistance that bowlers receive from our substandard wickets will continue to be a hindrance because internationally the wickets are placid requiring our bowlers to think a batsman out.

At 16-years-old I went to Devonshire Rec to face a veteran bowler in Winston (Coe) Trott. Having just come off scoring a century my confidence was high. Coe Trott ran in to bowl to me and two balls in a row I smashed him through the covers. The very next ball I was out caught in slips. After the game Mr. Trott pulled me aside and asked me do you know how you got out today? I was dumbfounded and said yeah, "I got caught in slips". He smiled and said, "I set you up, I gave you two balls in the exact same spot for you to drive then the next ball I pitched it at the same length but just moved it an inch or two wider, but you played down the same line as the first two balls that I bowled. That's why you edged it to slips".

That's bowling at another level. As a young batsman I was stunned, amazed, like really, are you serious, was it that easy to think me out. From that I had to learn more about the game. So I encourage our bowlers to learn more about your craft because bowling is just that, an art.

As a country we need to start developing and identifying young bowlers in each age group. Example, at the under-19, under-15 and under-13 level we should be identifying three pace bowlers, a right arm off spinner and a left arm spinner and allow these kids to be coached by a specialist bowling coach so that we have continuity for years to come.

Is a bowling coach necessary? Yes! This has been the weakest part of Bermuda cricket for years and we need to address it if we are to compete on the international stage.

One important point in coach David Moore's interview that I totally agree with is his statement about changing the mindset of the players. "I think that the problem is that sometimes people expect this team to fail, which means that these guys then expect to fail," said Moore. "So when we get into an awkward situation, rather than having the confidence to get out of trouble, they follow that perception that they have accepted."

Weeks ago I spoke of selecting a team with a variety of players with different mentalities. It is a fact that the selectors were limited when it came to player availability, but this team lacked balance. Taking six seam bowlers and only one spinner is just unheard of at any level of cricket. With Delyone (Borden) being unavailable, Tamauri Tucker (spinner) is the one player who should have been on this tour as he has international experience and has performed extremely well at the international level. His selection would have given our selectors added variety to our bowling attack.

Lastly, I want to encourage all of our top players to make themselves available for the Americas Tournament here in Bermuda this summer. If we as a small country are to compete with the top teams we need our best players playing. I would encourage the coaching staff to identify players that are needed to strengthen our team and address them, their places of employment, whatever needs to be done so that come this summer we are not getting embarrassed on our home soil.

Funny, just two years ago the country was adamant about ensuring certain players retired and got out of the game. Be careful what you ask for, as I wish that at least a couple of them were still around with their guts and determination.

Bermuda team, I still and will always support you, but we have to step our level up and with the new coach now on board it can be done, providing you are willing to listen and learn.

Quote of the week: "In order to excel, you must be completely dedicated to your chosen sport. You must also be prepared to work hard and be willing to accept destructive criticism. Without 100 percent dedication, you won't be able to do this." – Wilson Mizner