Bermuda’s senior national team should “withdraw” from international competition and precious time and money invested into the redevelopment of local cricket instead.

These are the sentiments of Gerald Bean, the former Bermuda Under-19 manager, who has spoken out after Bermuda’s poor showing at the World Twenty20 qualifying tournament in the UAE last month, when the Island finished fourteenth out of a field of 16.

“The BCB [Bermuda Cricket Board] needs to withdraw the senior national team from international competition and allocate the time and money on the youth [under-nine to under-21] to rebuild and redevelop Bermuda cricket,” Bean wrote. “If we want Bermuda’s cricket to get back to good standards, we have to start over and focus on the youth. It’s time for change.”

Before the tournament, Saleem Mukuddem, the former Bermuda all-rounder, claimed that the players in this country lacked the vital intangibles to be successful at the international level.

“Passion, motivation and patriotism cannot be taught and Bermudian cricketers simply don’t have it,” he said. “Bermuda should just stick to Cup Match.

“The players have an expectation of entitlement, but that is earned after hard work and results. Players are afraid of hard work and would rather choose the easy option and, in so doing, miss a few of life’s very important lessons.”

The BCB has been blamed for declining standards and this year came under heavy fire for its controversial restructuring of the domestic league, with Stephen Outerbridge, the Bermuda captain, among the board’s biggest critics.

“The board must get serious and change focus,” Bean wrote. “What you are doing at the senior level is not working.

“They [players] are disgruntled and demoralised. Take charge of Bermuda cricket. Start over.

“To keep competitive cricket alive, we need to return to the Shell Youth programme and get back to participating in the Sir Garfield Sobers School Tournament. We lost a lot of ground when we stopped sending the boys to Barbados. It is the longest overseas training period for any of our teams, with the squad leaving as soon as school closed and lasted three weeks.

“This is the kind of development tournament all age groups need. They got to live together and bond and learn just what team means, what competition was all about and what winning or losing really feels like.”

Letter in full, page 22