The decision to include Fiqre Crockwell in the Bermuda cricket squad for the ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 Qualifier was a hotly debated one.

Crockwell was a surprising inclusion in the 14-man squad despite having been charged with possession of heroin with intent to supply in February.

The St David’s cricketer, who is out on bail and has denied the charges, is due to stand trial on May 27 roughly two weeks after the tournament in Indianapolis finishes.

Bermuda Cricket Board officials spent almost a month trying to decide if Crockwell should be included, and ultimately came to the conclusion that they had no framework for leaving him out based on “off the field activities.”

Bermuda does not have an official conduct policy regarding the behaviour of its players, and several members of the board felt that to exclude the batsman would be “unfair as he is innocent until proven guilty.”

Crockwell, who is alleged to have committed his offence in August 2013, had been scheduled to play in the ICC World Cricket League Division Three tournament in Malaysia last October but withdrew prior to the Bermuda squad’s departure for “personal reasons.”

He is understood to have been wearing an electronic monitoring device at the time.

The incident has at least forced the BCB to review their procedures and the governing body said in a statement last night that it was “developing a policy that will address and provide guidance related to off-field issues and incidents for Board members, squad management and players and any potential impact on eligibility.”

The board are believed to be looking at a couple of options with regards to player behaviour, including having any national team players sign a conduct policy outlining punishments if they bring the game into disrepute off the field.

There is also the possibility that, much like the NFL, some type of exemption list could be created, giving officials the power to suspend players for a certain period of time.

There were a couple of other surprise inclusions in the squad for the May 2 to 11 tournament, with OJ Pitcher, David Hemp, Stefan Kelly, and Justin Pitcher all returning to the team.

Hemp, who now lives in Australia, will then stay in Bermuda for two weeks afterwards to coach the Bermuda Under-19 squad as they prepare for the regional World Cup qualifier in July.

Before that, however, Hemp will be part of the team that needs to finish in the top two in Indianapolis to progress to the World Twenty20 qualifiers in Ireland.

As part of the preparations for that tournament Bermuda flew to Jamaica yesterday for a training camp that will involve four Twenty20 games against Jamaica representative teams. Bermuda play once tomorrow, twice on Sunday, and then again on Monday.