Arnold Manders has been forced to relinquish his duties as Bermuda coach for the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division Three tournament in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, this month after contracting pneumonia for the second time in six months.

The 55-year-old first became ill in April but this latest relapse, since which diagnosed as walking pneumonia, has been significant to the extent that he has not been allowed to travel on medical advice.

Allan Douglas has been named as Manders’s replacement, even though Irving Romaine, the Bailey’s Bay coach who was captain when Bermuda appeared at the World Cup for a historic first time in 2007, was reported to have the inside track to head a backroom staff that includes Lionel Tannock as manager, Lorenzo Tucker as match analyst and bowling coach, and Baden Cashmore as physio.

The revelations could not come at a worse time for the Bermuda Cricket Board, which has had to rustle up a succession plan as well as embarrassingly read the riot act to national team cricketers who believe that lining up for potentially ferocious football grudge matches is an appropriate way to prepare for international competition.

The concern that strike bowler Malachi Jones and all-rounder Allan Douglas Jr have put themselves before the team is grave enough that Manders had to extricate himself from his sickbed to give the squad a stern warning at training last night — as well as confirm to them his unavailability to travel to the Far East.

Jones, who is expected to lead Bermuda’s bowling attack in Kuala Lumpur, scored twice on Sunday at St John’s Field as Somerset Trojans extended the poor run that champions Dandy Town are experiencing in the Premier Division.

Meanwhile, in the First Division, but no less significant, Douglas was banging in four goals to help St David’s to a 5-2 win away to Ireland Island Rangers at Malabar Field.

If the pair, who hold leadership positions at their respective cricket clubs, wanted to slip below the radar, they could hardly have done so in a less high-profile manner. “That’s just being selfish,” a clearly enraged Manders said yesterday in between coughing spells. “And this after being spoken to last year about the same thing; the same two players.”

It was later learnt that Dion Stovell, the Southampton Rangers all-rounder who is expected to figure prominently when the BCB holds its annual awards on Saturday night, was the first offender, having turned out for Lock N Key last Saturday afternoon in the Corona League. Like Jones and Douglas, he, too, has a penchant for scoring — with one goal in a 2-0 defeat of Vasco.

The two-sport conundrum that has plagued the national sport since Ricky Hill’s sensational axing for the 1994 ICC Trophy in Nairobi, Kenya, has the potential to turn into a BCB public relations disaster.

This time, Manders has made clear that repeated acts of insolence will not be permitted, even if the Board has to take a financial hit on amended airline tickets.

“They will be told that if they continue to play football, they will be left out and replaced,” Manders said of his planned talk to the Bermuda team.

St David’s (Douglas) are next in action on Friday night against Wolves in the first game of a double-header at Devonshire Recreation Club, with Lock N Key (Stovell) due to meet Tuff Dogs at Goose Gosling Field about 90 minutes later. The next night at Goose Gosling Field, Somerset (Jones) face Flanagan’s Onions, arguably the most physically robust team in the Premier Division.

Temiko Wilson, the Western Stars wicketkeeper-batsman, is the standby player for the original 14-man squad that was released last month and as such would not be a like-for-like replacement for either Jones, Douglas or Stovell, should they transgress again — not beyond the realms of possibility, given Manders’s earlier comment on repeat offenders.

So these will be worrying days ahead for the Board and its bean counters — yesterday’s prices for shortest flights to Kuala Lumpur ranged from $1,400 to $2,500.

Last-minute rearranging of a squad that has been weakened already by the absence of David Hemp, Bermuda’s one player approaching international class, and has had training disrupted reportedly by chronic truancy is the last thing that the BCB will want to do before what is expected to be a difficult tournament.

The top two from the six-team tournament advance to Division Two in Namibia in January 2015, but form is not on Bermuda’s side, with Uganda and Nepal having scored lopsided victories when the event was held on local soil last year. Both countries were hastily relegated back to Division Three after finishing bottom of the ten-team World Cup qualifying tournament in New Zealand in January that doubled as the Division Two tournament.

The Bermuda squad is set to leave next Wednesday for a 10,000-mile journey to the Malay Archipelago that should take a full day, which was too much for Manders’s doctors to sign off on.

“I am on a 12-day course of antibiotics that takes me past the date we leave,” said Manders, who was admitted to hospital last week when the full extent of his illness was revealed via X-ray.

“The doctors have said that my immune system would be down and advised me not to travel. Initially, I told the Board that I would still be available, but after consultation I had to follow doctor’s instructions.

“In April, it was a mild case of pneumonia and took three weeks to clear. But I did not do my follow-up checks and have apparently been walking around with this for six months.”

If last weekend’s exploits on the football field are repeated, he may not be the only one left behind.