Bermuda have unearthed a “budding star” in 17-year-old seamer Malachi Jones and everything must be done to ensure the youngster makes the most of his considerable potential.

That was ringing endorsement of former England coach David Lloyd yesterday, who watched all three of Bermuda’s World Cup matches from the television commentary box at the Queen’s Park Oval.

The bubbly Lancastrian was in absolutely no doubt that with the right guidance Jones has the talent to one day be a “top-class” quick bowler of genuine pace — and he urged the International Cricket Council and Bermuda Cricket Board to ensure they handle his development properly.

“Really impressed with that boy Jones,” said Lloyd in his famously thick Lancashire accent.

“He’s got good pace for a 17-year-old and an excellent action. I’m surprised he didn’t play against Bangladesh to be honest, but I saw enough in the one game he played against India to convince me that the boy’s got a real future.

“He can only get better as far as I’m concerned. I know he went for almost ten an over against India. Not bothered about that. For a young lad like him to be bowling against players like (Virenda) Sehwag and (Saurav) Ganguly was always going to be a tough ask and he perhaps lacked a little bit of maturity after getting a wicket with his first ball and letting the emotion of the moment affect his performance.

“But having ploughed a lot of money into the development of the Associates, its up to the ICC to recognise that we’ve got a budding star on our hands here and the sooner they or the Bermudians can get him across into a university centre of excellence in the UK or something like that the better because he’s at a crucial stage of his development and he needs access to the best coaching and facilities.

“I’ll be really interested to see how he develops because from my viewpoint in the commentary box he is an exciting prospect.” Predictably, the former left-handed opening batsman for both Lancashire and England was less complimentary about the rest of the national team squad and, echoing a by now familiar theme, argued that the quality of their regular opposition simply had to improve.

“From a technical standpoint they’ve been absolutely miles away,” he said.

“What we’re talking about here is essentially a collection of decent club cricketers who have been thrust into top-class international cricket and asked to sink or swim.

“Against club bowling, the technique of the Bermuda batsmen would fare pretty well, but the problem they’ve got here is that everything is happening about three times more quickly than they’re used to and all of a sudden their crooked back-lifts, the cross-bat shots and the poor footwork get exposed massively.

“It’s not their fault really, most of them have played a lot of what I’m calling club-standard cricket and then they’re out there facing (Lasith) Malinga. Very tough that, very tough.

“The bowling as well has been a bit limited. Saleem Mukuddem bowled very well in the two games he played in and I can see that the big man, Sluggo, is a decent left-arm spinner.

“But I look at somebody like Kevin Hurdle and I think to myself ‘come on lad, you’re six-foot something, you’re a big strong lad, where’s the pace and aggression?’ There’s no fluency or drive in his run-up or action, he doesn’t hit the crease hard and as a result he’s bowling at a very friendly medium pace most of the time when really he has the attributes to be a lot more than that.

“But anyway, if Bermuda are really going to improve, then they’ve got to start playing teams a level or two above them because you can only go so far playing against the other Associates all the time.

“If Bermuda could get over to England in the summer and play representative teams, England A, England Under-19s, county sides, things like that, then I think over time you would start to see improvement.

“But what teams like Bermuda really need is a star, somebody who young players coming through can look up to and say ‘I want to be like him, I want to achieve what he is achieving in the game’.

“You only need one star really to get things going and young Malachi could be the person to take Bermuda cricket forward.”

The Bermuda players are scheduled to arrive home this evening.