Cricket Board of Control (BCBC) president Ed Bailey used the stage of the Camel Cup Match MVP awards ceremony to lash out at these critics.

First to be chastised by an obviously enraged Bailey were those charged with delivering live commentary of the match at St. George's last Thursday and Friday.

"The Cup Match this year was an interesting one, but one would have thought that listening to the commentary that they were looking at a different match,'' said Bailey at the gathering at Fort Hamilton, attended by many players and officials from both Somerset and St. George's. "I would think that it has become a pattern and a popular thing to degrade the cricketers of today.

"I want to tell the cricketers that were involved in this Cup Match that the Bermuda Cricket Board of Control has no complaints about the standard of cricket in Bermuda.

"As a country that has 60,000 people ... and with the standard of cricket that has been sustained over the last couple of years in Cup Match, county games or nationally we should be very proud.'' These comments came less than a week after Somerset skipper Perry Maybury similarly blasted Randy Horton and Colin Blades for "negative commentary'' during the aforementioned game.

He was also upset by television reports where former players espoused views of a sport in disarray and failing standards.

Highlighted -- by critics -- were the recent performance by the Under 19 National Squad at the International Youth Tournament in Denmark and losing results by the senior team in recent tours by England, Pakistan and a West Indies select.

To this Bailey shot back saying: "We've seen throughout the world that many other countries have improved and just having a conversation here with some of our more prominent cricketers ... that perhaps these cricketers were good during their day, but certainly when they went abroad didn't play against the standard that our national team is (currently) meeting here on our shores and what we are meeting abroad.

"So it is a fallacy that some of them feel that they were better than they actually were.'' As examples of the cricketing future on the Island the president held up Lionel Cann, Richard and Dexter Basden and Cup Match MVP Dean Minors as the torch bearers.

He remarked that this year marked the first in some time that youngsters played vital roles in the summer spectacle and boded well for the future of the overall programme.

"I thought that the Cup Match this year with the youngsters was fantastic and the whole board joins in congratulating them,'' said Bailey, who has headed the local cricketing body for close to a decade. "And those people that have some cricket talent and the ability to judge cricketers would see that we have a fine crop of young men.

"I think that a gentleman like Dean Minors certainly made Cup Match an exciting feast this year, along with Lionel Cann, Jeff Richardson, Dexter Basden and Richard Basden. These young men need to at least need be shown some gratitude for their performance.'' As for the constant talk about making changes to the format used for the game he said that people have become obsessed with altering the classic.

"We didn't get a victory, but I think the Bermuda public don't have as many complaints as they did last year and overall we would say that the cricket was great and the organisation was great.'' PHOTO ED BAILEY -- "...it is a fallacy that some of them feel that they were better than they actually were.''