Bermuda skipper Irving Romaine is renowned for his trailblazing.

In May of last year the Bailey’s Bay cricketer became the first Bermudian to score a half-century in an official ODI at the Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad. And he would raise the bar three months later by smashing a magnificent century against Canada in Toronto to become the first Bermudian batsman to achieve that feat in an ODI.

Now the early order bat finds himself in a position to achieve yet another first, although it’s safe to say he will probably want no part of this record.

After failing to get off the mark against Sri Lanka and India, Romaine is on the verge of a not-so glamorous hat-trick of ducks. But you can rest assured the veteran batsman will do everything within his power to avoid that indignity against Bangladesh on Sunday in Bermuda’s final World Cup Group B match in Trinidad.

Romaine doesn’t hide the fact that against Sri Lanka he was beaten for pace by a Lasith Malinga delivery that rapped him on the pads. However, the Bermuda skipper claims he got a raw deal during his team’s record-breaking loss against India earlier this week after again being struck on the pads pushing forward in defence.

“I thought it was sort of a hard call,” was the way Romaine summed up the dismissal over breakfast early yesterday morning. “It’s always a hard call with lbws in my situation, and I think it all boils down to the quality of bowling that we have faced.

“If you look at it, David Hemp and Lionel Cann are the only batsmen on our team that have managed pretty decent scores. But we have been facing some high quality bowling. They bowl, we miss and they hit. And it does show the different levels of cricket.

“Our batsmen have been getting low scores and there have been a lot of lbw decisions that have gone against us.”

Romaine doesn’t, however, hold any grudges against umpires at the World Cup or allow himself to get bent out of shape over his current lean spell with the bat. But he does admit being skipper of a World Cup team can become burdensome at times.

“There are days when the team have the day off but I am still doing interviews or going to meetings. I don’t even get to do my morning warm-ups (on match day) anymore because I have to attend pre-match press conferences and then be out on the pitch for the toss,” he explained.

But in no way is Romaine using these obligations as an excuse for his dip in form.

“Mentally it’s draining and I have heard other captains say in the past that it is difficult being a captain sometimes,” he said. “I can’t really say this has affected my game, but it’s been a new challenge for me because everywhere I go I really need to be ready for the media.

“Everywhere I’ve stopped I have been interviewed, before the game, during the game and after the game. You also have the sponsors who want to take you places. So it is a whole new arena for me, but I’m definitely enjoying it.”