In the wake of the catastrophic tour to Malaysia at the back end of last year, Lloyd Fray, not one known for bold pronouncements during his spell as president of the Bermuda Cricket Board, declared that players should have been sent home.

Such was the shambles that Bermuda's involvement in the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division Three tournament descended into, the national mood was that perhaps we should scrap the devil-may-care seniors and take our chances with the younger, less scarred set.

Yet, a full four months after an autumn to forget, the only fall guys have been Allan Douglas and Lionel Tannock. They were the two most senior members of the tour party but they were not in charge of a school team but a group of men, all but one or two of whom were of voting age — the inference being that they are to be treated as responsible adults.

What could have happened to disabuse the most senior figure in domestic cricket of the notion that heads must roll, other than those of Douglas and Tannock? And to determine, somehow, that those who dragged Bermuda's already faltering cricket reputation through the mud are to charges of indiscipline as an omelette is to a Teflon skillet?

Flashback to 1986 when the general consensus was that a youthful Charlie Marshall should have been sent home from the ICC Trophy Tournament in England after, to put it mildly, he rather heatedly disputed a contentious decision. Belatedly, the cricket board did the correct thing and suspended him for 12 months right on the eve of Cup Match.

That St George's Cricket Club put two fingers up to the cricket board, and Bermuda cricket in general, by selecting Marshall for the 1987 Cup Match virtually the moment the suspension was up, and with only a solitary match under his belt, is neither here nor there.

The fact is that he was said to be in the wrong while on tour, was found to be in the wrong while on tour and was punished — rather publicly.

Back to the future and we are led to believe, force-fed to believe, that what went on in Malaysia is down to two men. For Douglas, who was not even supposed to be there but stepped in at the last moment because national coach Arnold Manders was stricken off for health reasons, 2014 proved to be an annus horribilis.

Third choice behind Manders and Irving Romaine, the Bailey's Bay coach and a Manders protégé dating all the way back to their student-teacher relationship at Berkeley Institute, Douglas was in a lose-lose position from the outset.

This after he had been dumped by the very club that first brought him into the public eye in the 1970s and for whom he performed with distinction, especially in the Eastern Counties Cup.

Cleveland Counties ended the season as Eastern Counties champions, so the decision to dispense with a “son of the soil” as coach in favour of Clay Smith has to be seen as justified, despite the collateral damage that has resulted in Douglas and a number of other long-serving club men taking more than a figurative step back.

With Douglas's ego bruised and his heartfelt message not being exactly taken to heart by today's brand of cricketer, it is on the cricket board's hands that he was arrived at as an option when Manders first displayed symptoms that walking pneumonia might affect his availability.

But Douglas has been left to carry the can, losing his position as second vice-president on the board as well as a fair degree of credibility. Whatever the result of his arbitration case, there is likely no going back — at least not with the board under existing management.

So to the Bermuda team, whose performances in Malaysia veered from the ridiculous to the utterly embarrassing. The squad is preparing for another venture in May — the ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 Championship — and with many of the same players who took part in a match that should have been looked at very suspiciously by the world governing body.

Had that been Pakistan sending out a batting line-up in virtual reverse order against United States, then allowing a run chase in excess of 100 runs to be executed comfortably inside an hour, Lord Condon and his crew in the Anti-Corruption Security Unit would have descended on Kuala Lumpur faster than a New York minute.

And that is just the cricket, not to mention the rumoured indiscretions that took place away from it. That is what Douglas has been “hanged, drawn and quartered” for; so, too, Tannock, who had fulfilled the role of Bermuda manager with distinction on so many previous tours, including the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean.

Ah, the World Cup. We take pleasure from the success of the Associate members at the event going on in Australia and New Zealand; almost as a second team, if you will. But the reality is that Bermuda's attachment to Afghanistan or Ireland or Scotland or United Arab Emirates is only tenuous at best. We are light years away in distance and at least a generation away in time from doing the right things on or off the pitch.