Clay Smith has promised to bring the passion back to Bermuda cricket.

The former Bermuda captain believes that reinstalling a lost national pride, instilling a greater work ethic, and his own enthusiasm can change the Island’s fortunes.

Smith was named as the new national team head coach yesterday, replacing Arnold Manders as the man tasked with lifting the senior team out of Division Four of the World Cricket League.

Lorenzo Tucker, the team’s performance analyst, will be the assistant coach, while also taking charge of a soon-to-be-created Bermuda A team.

“It [the national job] is something that I have aspired to for quite some time,” Smith said. “I’m looking forward to the massive challenge of getting us back to the standard of cricket that we are used to seeing.

“I strongly believe there is an abundance of talent in this country, but we really need to focus on having a strong work rate, commitment and attention to detail.”

Manders’s expertise will not be lost to the country, with the former national coach joining the Bermuda Cricket Board’s high performance committee, as will Terry Fray, who has been made director of the senior national programme, as well as tour manager.

“This is not a one man show,” Gershon Gibbons, chairman of the BCB’s high performance committee, said. “We cannot afford to lose the talent that is around us, we have to do this together.”

There will also be a selection committee, but Smith is now the head coach and it will be his philosophy that guides the country going forwards.

If any of Bermuda’s players think that will mean an easy ride from a man they all know well, they are in for a rude awakening.

“I have no problems with being the bad guy because to me, at the end of the day, my job is to make sure that Bermuda is successful and I have to put my best team forward,” Smith said. “I have to make sure my players are giving us, as a country, 100 per cent in their training and their efforts on the field.

“When it comes to winning there is a whole different Clay. I don’t have friends, that goes out the door, it’s about who can produce on the field.”

Players will get the chance to start with a clean slate, and the pool of players from which Smith can pick his teams will be expanded. The purpose of the A team will be to create competition, and name alone will not guarantee a spot.

There will be few favourites in Smith’s reign, with some players likely to be hauled out of their comfort zone and asked to take on unfamiliar roles.

“I think players have to realise that to be successful overseas you have to go that much further, to push yourself,” Smith said. “That’s what the team of 2005 did, and these are the types of things I want to make sure we do ten years later.

“These are the expectations I have for the players, they need to open their eyes and realise that we don’t play as much cricket as some of the other countries do, so to close the gap we have to work that much harder.”

Smith does believe that success is achievable, and is convinced that the Island has enough talented players to climb back to the top of Associate cricket.

Motivation and passion for the game are key for Smith, who believes that playing for Bermuda should be incentive enough to get the best out of someone.

However, the new head coach is also a pragmatist, and understands that the world has changed since the largely amateur days of the past.

“I don’t think it is a sense of us not being good enough, I think there has been a lack of commitment overall, and that is an area we really have to tackle,” Smith said.

“We [the Board] have had a brief discussion about performance based [pay], rewarding players for success. We’ll meet with the players and see what the best way forward is.”

Whether the Board can afford that is another matter. With dwindling resources, substantial overheads, and an ever-decreasing Government grant the BCB is not a rich organisation.

“I’m building a little money tree out the back,” Speight said. “There is a reality in the financial situation, but I think it is important that we try and do something.”

In the absence of performance-related pay, Smith’s powers of persuasion will be key, and he hopes the players will share the optimism he has for the future.

“It’s all about passion,” he said. “I find one of my strengths is motivation and confidence, and if my confidence can rub off on them hopefully the players will see that we are moving in a new direction and will jump on board.”