Clyde (Bunny) Best ? the Jackie Robinson of English football ? deserves more than an MBE for his pioneering achievements in the UK, argues former Jamaica national team midfielder Leonard (Chicken) Mason.

Speaking from his Brooklyn, New York office, the 57-year-old accountant told : ?Clyde is an establishment who was a pioneer for black players in the English Premiership who paved the way for future generations of black players to come.?

Had it not been for the likes of Best, players such as Cyrillle Regis, John Barnes and Ian Wright may never have received the chance to showcase their talents on the UK scene, added Mason, who declined offers to play professionally in Holland and Spain in pursuit of an education.

Between 1969 and 1976 Best, a former Somerset Trojans and Somerset Cup Match player, made 186 appearances for West Ham United, scoring 47 goals.

In 1967 Best was a member of Bermuda?s Pan American Games silver medal winning squad. He also represented Tampa Bay Rowdies, Portland Timbers and the Toronto Blizzards in the North American Soccer League and Holland?s Feyenoord.

During his stay at Upton Park, Best played alongside England?s 1966 World Cup stars Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters. The trio have since been knighted.

And Mason believes Best should have also had that honour bestowed upon him.

?They were all players who Clyde played with and they were all knighted. All of the English players who did anything of importance were knighted. Now Bermuda is a English colony and therefore they should have also considered Best,? he argued.

Last summer saw the England Test team receive MBEs after winning the Ashes series against Australia for the first time in 18 years.

Yet Mason believes the achievement of Michael Vaughan?s victorious team pales in comparison to Best?s pioneering feats on the football pitch.

?I still think Clyde should have been knighted, however things like that don?t happen overnight,? added Mason, who first toured Bermuda with the Jamaican national team in 1973.

According to sources, Best had received ringing endorsements from former England national football coach Ron Greenwood and current West Ham chairman Terrence Brown.

In 2004 Best received a FIFA Order of Merit Award and was inducted to Bermuda?s inaugural Hall of Fame.

Best, who represented Somerset in the 1966 and 68 Cup Match classics, was honoured in New York in 2001 and at Somerset Cricket Club in 2004 by the visiting Jamaican Ambassadors.

Mason is the current president of the Jamaican Ambassadors Incorporated, formed in 1994.

The Ambassadors have toured Bermuda for the past two years.

Mason added: ?We invited Clyde to New York to honour him in 2001. It was like a homecoming for Clyde who is a very powerful individual. And after the ceremony was held people started asking why it took someone outside of Bermuda to honour Clyde. And quite rightly.?

One key factor which could have influenced the decision to honour Best with an MBE as opposed to a knighthood might have hinged on the player?s decision to play a series of exhibition matches in South Africa at the height of apartheid in the early 1980s.

Other black legends to have toured South Africa during the time were Jamaican cricketers Gilbert Chang, Kerry Packer and Richard Austin. Laurence Rowe ? to this present day still regarded as the best batsman the Caribbean has ever produced ? also toured the African nation along with US tennis great the late Arthur Ashe.

?We actually wrote a letter to the Governor (of Bermuda) lobbying for Clyde to be honoured,? Mason said. ?We did this because we felt the players who Clyde played with did not do anything more than he did.?

Best, who played with the likes of Brazilian great Pele, Holland?s Johann Cruyff and Germany?s Franz Beckenbauer, was a member of Trojans? 1967 triple crown championship winning team that won the Premier Division, FA Cup and Friendship Trophy under coach Conrad Simons before he burst onto the UK scene two years later as a 17-year-old.

Mason added: ?Clyde may not have been the greatest black player. But he was the pioneer for all black players in the Caribbean, South and North America, Europe and Africa. He was the number one player who created what?s happening today.

?You can look at any league around the world and I can tell you that player might not have been there had it not been for Clyde (Bunny) Best. The little man from Somerset, Bermuda.

?And I say this with a lot of passion and emotion. This man has done enough to make every black footballer around the world proud. ?