When a player represents his country he must realise that there is a different level of commitment and expectation. Players have to realise the importance of training and working hard. When you train hard, it makes it harder for you to give up or fail.

Bermuda are about to embark on a very important journey. Shortly they will be leaving to go to Malaysia for the ICC World Cricket League Division Three tournament.

Talent-wise, we have the ability to get into Division Two, but based on attendance to training and the modern-day player’s work ethic, as a team we could easily plummet into Division Four if we are not careful.

Have our modern-day cricketers learnt anything from the past successes of Bermuda teams and former Bermuda cricketers?

Back in 1994, I was fortunate to be part of the ICC team that went to Kenya. This team trained incredibly hard. Basically, we were running two miles every time we went to the gym — before our official workout.

We also trained at the National Stadium with the national track and field coach, Gerry Swan, doing various fitness drills, which improved our overall fitness tremendously.

It was no surprise that in Kenya we got to the semi-finals. We should have qualified for the World Cup, but unfortunately came up just short.

Dexter Smith is one player from that team who stands out in my mind. Dexter was not your normal elegant strokeplayer like Noel Gibbons or Albert Steede, or a household name such as Charlie Marshall or Clevie Wade, but he had an unbelievable work ethic.

Dexter worked extremely hard in training, but worked even harder outside of training. You would often see him running the roads, skipping and doing his extras. All this was a recipe for success.

When you train the way Dexter did, it makes it harder for you to accept failure and this is what is lacking in our modern-day players.

Too many of our cricketers are afraid of hard work; hence the reason many of them do not attend squad training and have not been selected for this tour or tours in the past.

I have been on several tours with Dexter and seen players who I thought were far more talented than him fail while he succeeded. It was almost as if he refused to let his hard work go in vain.

Dexter was brought into the 1994 team as a late replacement, but he had been training the whole time with the team. At the end of the tournament, Dexter surprisingly finished with the most runs for Bermuda, 392 to be exact, one run more than Yours Truly, with an average of 56.00.

Others in the team and around cricket may have been shocked at his achievements, but I wasn’t. As a young cricketer, he was a great example for me to follow. When you take your body out of its comfort zone, these are the type of results you get.

For some reason, our players like to stay inside their box where they feel comfortable; hence they never reach their true potential.

The national level is far different from club cricket. There is a certain amount of fitness that is necessary for one to perform at a higher level. One must condition his body for the battle, for when you condition your body, you are also conditioning the mind.

Give me an average player with a strong work ethic any day before a player with raw talent that is lazy. Talent can get you only so far, but Dexter has proven that hard work increases your chance of being successful. It can help you achieve over and beyond ones capabilities.

This is something that all present and future national squad players need to adhere to, especially if they wish to be competitive at the international level.

Quote of the week: Winners embrace hard work. They love the discipline of it, the trade-off they’re making to win. Losers, on the other hand, see it as punishment. And that’s the difference — Lou Holtz