Age is just a number, goes the saying, but in this society it is often the elderly whose concerns are overlooked, the elderly who are cast into a corner waiting to move on to the next life while “those who know better” get on with the business of living.

It has been well established that Bermuda is an ageing society, much as may be determined in years to come should we discover that the reserves in the pension fund are running on empty — as has been the warning.

This is to state that our old are not going anywhere fast and that, while they are with us, they should be acknowledged equally as contributors to society.

What wonderful images from the Seniors Tea on Tuesday, and didn’t sprightly police superintendent James Howard, who celebrated a birthday 24 hours later, appear royally to enjoy himself in the company of those who have “been there and done it”?

While young people represent the future, seniors are our most cherished commodity and should be as much of our present as any demographic. What is more fulfilling than to know you have done your best to care for those who do not have the means always to fend for themselves?

This instinct is instilled in how we look after our newborns; so, too, should it be commonplace for those at the other end of the spectrum.

It is with this theme in mind that we can segue to another of the feel-good stories of the week.

Admittedly borne out of desperation, the Bermuda Cricket Board has recalled for the third time Dean Minors: at 46, a young man on life’s journey, but significantly past his sell-by date from the perspective of top-flight sport.

The longtime CedarBridge Academy teacher believed the Bermuda coach to be trying to pull a fast one when he got the call — and, given they have been friends since childhood, only Clay Smith would have the cheek to make such a request and think he could get away with it.

But when you assess the state of Bermuda cricket, the call does not come as far out of left-field as one may think.

The decline of the game domestically has affected the national team dramatically. The evidence of this was brought to the wider public first during the embarrassing performance in Malaysia two years ago, which resulted in demotion deeper into international cricket’s backwaters, and then in the 2015 Cup Match, which was too bad to be true — unless you are a one-eyed Somerset supporter.

In came Smith as Bermuda coach, a position he has craved since his playing days at international level came to an end almost ten years ago, and, over time, he has come to realise the hospital pass he had been given.

Our view is that he is not to be judged as a success or failure unless the trapdoor opens once again when the World Cricket League Division Four tournament begins in Los Angeles at the end of this month. The opponents are the United States, with whom we are nominally joint favourites, Denmark, Italy, Jersey and Oman — not the who’s who of international cricket but capable all the same of smearing more egg on our faces.

Relegation should not become an issue but long gone are the days when we can get by on our name. If anything, in cricketing terms, the Bermuda name has been soiled so much so as to become a byword for “laughing stock”.

Smith’s remit is not only to put an end to such derision, but also to offer the belief that something approaching the glory days of 2005 is possible.

For the call to be made to Minors, there had to be six others as wicketkeepers who withdrew from consideration because of injury or “personal reasons” — at times, the BCB has all the transparency of Fort Knox.

Injury cannot be helped; the “personal reasons” speak to where the game is at present: victimised by youth being wasted on the youth — one of the great truisms — xenophobia that has led to a genuine absence of diversity on our fields at the highest level, and such a significant rise in violent crime that not even the gentleman’s game has remain untouched.

Note the island-wide chase that ended with an abandoned, bullet-riddled car in Southampton two years ago and the shooting murder in June of Fiqre Crockwell, who 12 months earlier had been preparing to travel to Jamaica on international duty.

With this as a backdrop, it is difficult for Smith to remove the wheat from the chaff and then have something tangible to take to Los Angeles by way of quality allied to compatibility.

Forced compromise and dipping into yesteryear have been the order of the day.

That is where Minors comes into the equation: a wicketkeeper who does not have to run around the field like a gazelle, but one who still has to go into “down and up” mode up to 300 times a match — and that is before we ask him to bat and then turn ones into twos and, bless his soul, twos into threes.

Thankfully for Smith, Minors takes better than decent care of himself, put in a few superlative performances in the Evening League, whose standard at the top end is not that far below the domestic leagues — disconcerting in and of itself to the BCB — and should not look dreadfully out of place among the Bermuda team.

He turns the “if you’re good enough, you’re old enough” adage on its head.

But if we cannot bowl or field, and teams are teeing off as freely as a superior Canada outfit did when scoring in excess of 400 during the recent tour, the “old man” may require a fare upgrade for the flight back from California so that he can make early and ample use of the business class recliner.