Ms Gordon Pamplin said Bermuda was surrounded by water so there was no reason why the Island could not produce Olympic-standard swimmers, yachtsmen and canoeists.

Tennis players on the Island had conditions to play 365 days a year, yet no one from the Island could get past the qualifying round of the XL Tennis tournament.

She said it was not enough for sports administrators to be enthusiastic and committed to their sports -- they must have money to improve their techniques.

The solution was to ensure that money was available for administrators to travel to events overseas where they could improve their abilities.

She also said she was concerned to read a news report that members of Government, including the Premier, signed a petition in support of the legalisation of marijuana. (The claims, from the man who organised the petition, could not be confirmed).

Youth and Sport Minister Dennis Lister said the state of sport in Bermuda was the fault of the United Bermuda Party, not his administration.

"Everything I heard was punitive,'' he said about Ms Gordon Pamplin's speech.

"We're about addressing the problem.'' He said rather than ban a person who has tested positive for drugs, that person should be banned temporarily from international competition and enrolled in drug counselling.

Mr. Lister added he wanted to regain national pride in sports and the completion of the National Sport Centre would help.

"Rest assured this Government is committed to programmes that bring a solution to the table,'' he added. "We're not going to run from it.'' Alan Marshall read a long list of newspaper headlines since November 1998 detailing the problems in sport, asking the Government: "Hello, is anybody over there listening?'' "We've got to have a plan for sport and frankly I don't' see one,'' he added.

"What we do have is a deafening silence.'' Mr. Marshall suggested Government "incentivise'' local sport clubs to organise after school programmes for children and teenagers while abandoning alcohol sales.

Randolph Horton admitted there was a "crisis'' in sport and said the problem is based on a breakdown in the family structure and "moral fabric'' of society.

"It seems the opposition is saying that Government is soft on drugs. Not so! This Government wants to see the scourge of drugs removed from the community.

Unless we look at this in the broad sense we're not going to the heart of the matter.'' He added: "We believe that one day we can go to a game and not be surrounded by the smell of marijuana. I have a vision that I can take my daughters.

"How long? It's not going to take us 30 years,'' he shouted to the oppositions questions. "We're going to stop this haemorrhaging now. If it is not stopped, we're going to bleed to death.'' Mr. Horton said before the end of the life of the current parliament, there will be a suitable facility at the National Stadium for the hosting of a One Day International Cricket match, an example of Government's commitment to local sport.

He said that Bermudian youth teams are "world beaters'' but "something happens'' when they become senior players.

Crediting sport with his personal opportunities, Mr. Horton said a Sports Hall of Fame would encourage young people not only to learn their history, but encourage them to excel in their sport.

Most importantly he said sport would no longer be minimised in Bermuda under the Progressive Labour Party, adding: "This Government realises that sport is so important to the development of our young people and Sport is going to get the attention it deserves.'' Shadow Tourism Minister David Dodwell encouraged the minister to pursue more "sports tourism'' as in the early days of the College Weeks and efforts when he was minister in the mid 1990s.

But he taunted what he perceived as the minister avoiding opposition calls for a stated plan or policy for sport.

"Don't duck the problem. Drugs are the problem,'' he said. "Countries have had great problems dealing with this and we should get to benefit from their knowledge.'' He also called on the Government to submit to drug testing, as he claimed his party had done, as leading "by example''.

Former Tourism Minister CV (Jim) Woolridge said sport brought all sections of the community together and taught them discipline.

He said sportsmen and women who were caught taking drugs should be banned from the sport immediately. Drug dealing contributed to a decline in standards of behaviour.

He said he did a television broadcast with ZBM of a Bermuda versus Alabama University football match about 25 years ago and was supposed to provide a tape to the college.

"We had to destroy the better part of it because of the language that filtered through. They (the university) said they didn't expect that, this place is so sophisticated.

"We can't be sophisticated on the one hand and act like jungle bunnies on the other.'' On drugs, "the word is no, no, no. There is no mid-point. I don't care how the minister tries to rationalise it about putting people in a programme, they should not be participating with other young people.'' Referring to international companies sponsoring sport he said: "I can't if they can't help but wonder that they're watching this lack of discipline and decorum.

"As much money as they have, they are not crazy and won't pour their money down the drain. We must make people realise that they are destroying what is theirs.

"They can be as great as they want to be through sport. No one will put money into a situation where they're seeing the type of conduct they're seeing. We don't need to make an excuse for it, we need to collectively condemn it.'' PLP MP Dale Butler said although Ms Gordon Pamplin said football and cricket were in crisis, other sports were not.

He said the worsening behaviour was caused by a change in values today. A generation ago, no one talked openly about drug abuse and there were no drug counsellors or rehabilitation.

Adults hid their faults to try to be good role models to their children. To discipline their children parents had two phrases: "Don't do it,'' and "or else,'' and youngsters knew the consequences.

He said he met his wife at a football match and they would court there, but the language got so bad and the drug-taking increased so much that they stopped going.

"The clubs have got to say: `We can't have that language and conduct in here'.''