Bermuda Cricket Board chief executive Neil Speight has insisted that the gap in standard between the Full and Associate members of the International Cricket Council is getting smaller — despite Bermuda’s World Cup record 257-run defeat to India last Monday.

Together with the ICC’s high performance manager Richard Done, Speight says he’s been busy comparing the performances of the Associate teams now to the last two World Cups — suggesting that the results have shown Associate teams are in general scoring more runs against Test-class nations than they were 12 years ago while the margins of defeat are, on average much slimmer.

He accused those who believe teams like Bermuda have no place at the World Cup of failing to properly consider “the big picture” in terms of ensuring the future vitality of the international game.

“People are entitled to their opinions, but you only have to look at the immensely positive impact qualifying for the World Cup has had on Bermuda cricket to see how important it is for as many Associate member teams as possible to be involved in the World Cup,” he said.

“The only way you can possibly offer the necessary incentive for the smaller nations to invest in and improve their cricket and their infrastructure is by allowing them opportunity to compete at the World Cup.

“And while there are always going to be anomalies and growing pains, overall the performances of the Associate nations are getting better. Richard Done has done a lot of work comparing the results of the Associate sides from the last two or three World Cups, and on average we’re getting a lot more competitive.

“Kenya got as far as the semi-finals in South Africa (in 2003) while I think Ireland’s performance in this World Cup is evidence enough that Associate sides at least deserve a chance to take on the big boys.

“What you’ve always got to bear in mind is that it’s a long-term process and while there are going to be some very bad defeats and some big disappointments along the way, the idea is that as the years go by each side will benefit from the added exposure and the game in general will continue to improve and expand.

“Now if you want to have a tournament involving only the Test-playing nations then that’s fine, but you would have no right to call it a World Cup.

“We in Bermuda would never have had the chance to invest as heavily as we are doing in youth programmes, educational scholarships, infrastructure development and things like that if we hadn’t had the opportunity to qualify.

“I think the ICC have a fantastic vision for the future of the sport and I applaud them for sticking to their guns despite the flak they’ve been getting from some quarters.

“Look at football. If you’d have told me 25 years ago that a non-footballing country like Australia would be taking on a team like Italy in the first round of the last World Cup, and but for a couple dodgy refereeing decisions would have beaten them (Italy scraped by 1-0) I’d have told you you were crazy.

“The same goes for the many of the African countries like Cameroon and Nigeria who are now competitive at the very top level. They’re in that position because FIFA understood they had a responsibility to grow the game, and they did that by investing heavily in those countries and making it easier for them to get regular competition against the best teams.

“The same is true now with cricket and if you’re serious about strengthening the sport in the long term, then allowing teams like us to play in the World Cup is absolutely central to that process. Otherwise there would be very little for the players to aim for.”

Speight did admit, however, that there are three issues Bermuda must deal with if the national team is to make any significant progress: the absence of an accredited home ground on which to play ICC-sanctioned internationals, poor wickets and practice facilities at the vast majority of club grounds and the limited number of cricketers in comparison to all other cricketing nations.

“Obviously it would be wonderful if we had ten times more cricketers to choose from,” he said.

“But we all know that’s not realistic. What we’ve got to do to make up for that then is to make sure we as a governing body are more organised, more ambitious and more forward-thinking than the other governing bodies at an Associate level.

“There’s tons of decent talent in Bermuda despite our size which is capable of punching above its weight, but only if we continue to invest in our national youth teams and women’s cricket, send more and more youngsters overseas and invest in more coaching, umpiring and scoring courses. Everything really to try and get participation levels to their absolute maximum.

“We also have to continue to improve the local infrastructure, which is why we’re importing a stack of artificial wickets to be dispersed around the club grounds this summer as well as enough netting for an additional 18 practice lanes.

“But it’s important to stress here though that there’s got to be a country-wide effort on this. We are willing to go to the clubs and help them develop their grounds and their practice facilities. Around eight or nine clubs now have bowling machines and top-of-the-line pitch covers paid for out of the (Allen) Stanford money and there will be much more to come on that.

“But we can only work with clubs who show a willingness to work with us. The clubs that don’t properly maintain the resources they’re given or don’t have their own properly run youth programmes will quickly find that the money won’t be made available to them, which is why it’s so important for the future of Bermuda cricket that the clubs and the Board are all moving in the same direction.

“It’s also no secret that we’ve been frustrated for a while now with the absence of a fully-accredited ground in Bermuda.

“We’ve got absolutely no doubt that Test teams would love to come to the Island to play and practice, but without a proper ground it has made things very difficult for us.

“Unfortunately the Board has no control over the progress being made at the National Sports Centre, but we’re all hoping the problems with the wicket will be sorted out soon because it’s been going on for quite some time.

“In our discussions with Ewart Brown, he has pledged his full support and we’ve made it very clear that the absence of an accredited ground is a major obstacle for us in terms of fulfilling our goals.

“We got into this World Cup, but we’ve targeted re-qualification as the next major step. Teams like UAE and Namibia who didn’t make it this time round will be gunning for us big time at the ICC Trophy in 2009, and to stay ahead of them the Board has got to work extremely hard, as does everybody else with a stake in domestic cricket.”