Bermuda skipper David Hemp believes the Island's Intercontinental Shield defeat at the hands of Uganda should be seen as a learning experience for a young team and not a case for an inquisition into what went wrong.

Retirements, withdrawals, and injuries forced Bermuda into fielding an inexperienced side for their first four-day game in the new competition, and they paid the price.

Out for 91 in the first innings, and 138 in the second, the home side were always going to be struggling.

They fought back well to keep Uganda in sight, but in the end didn't have enough for a final push and lost by seven wickets.

If the seven senior players who were missing from the squad had been available, then who knows what the result would have been.

Hemp though prefers to talk about the ones who played, and not the ones that didn't.

"For me it is always nice to have a blend of experience and youth," he said. "If you go too much one way, then you are always battling because the younger players haven't got the experience.

"The flip side is that players are only going to get experience by playing, so it's a vicious circle, but you've got to be very careful how you blood it.

"If you look at Australia and the way they do things, they bring one or two (youngsters in) if that, as opposed to letting the floodgates open and bringing loads of players in.

"In terms of people making themselves available, not available, that's not for me to comment on, that's up to individuals.

"If individuals don't want to play, then they don't want to play, and you get on with it.

If you've got 12-13 players to choose from, then that's it and you get on with it with those 12 or 13 and try to figure out plans and strategies with those players, and work around that.

"It is a little bit frustrating when that happens, but that's life, you've just got to get on with it."

Some might look at the withdrawals, and the defeat, and the bitter self-interest that plagues Bermuda cricket on a regular basis and wonder, why bother? But Hemp sees enough ability in the current squad to be hopeful for the future.

"It's not a lost cause, not at all," he said.

"Even someone like David Lovell has come in, shown plenty of energy, I thought he played really well with the bat in the second innings, a lot more disciplined.

"He battled, and didn't give his wicket away, and for me that's a big plus.

"You look at the squad, and the players that have played, there is something there.

"But there will always be something there, because there is a lot of natural ability and talent in Bermuda full stop.

"It's how that is harnessed, and how the coaches and coaching staff get across to the players how important it is to be disciplined and get your basics right, because if you don't do that, you're not going to compete."

Like many other Associate nations, Bermuda's opportunities to play four-day cricket are limited, and they have lessened ever since the team were relegated to the new Shield competition. The longer version of the game requires patience and a discipline that Bermuda struggled to find in their game against Uganda.

However Hemp believes any chance to play, however infrequent, can only help the team in their ultimate goal of getting back their ODI status.

"We have a lack of four-day opportunities now, because of where we are, and it's going to be hard to get people into that mindset and practice in that way," said Hemp.

"And also, from Bermuda's point of view, the one-day competition is arguably the priority because that is what gets us back to ODI status, which we want.

"For me it's great that players can experience the four-day stuff because that's where you learn about players, because it's a harder game.

"And if you can get players to be able to play in that format of the game, that will help them, I believe, in the one-day game."