IF Bermuda?s place in world cricket needed putting into perspective then last week?s Tri-Series matches against Canada and Zimbabwe will have served some useful purpose.

While we?ve known for some time we can compete with the likes of our North American neighbours, Test-playing nations, even those as lowly regarded as Zimbabwe, are a completely different kettle of fish.

Victory over the Canadians represented a commendable performance but subsequent thrashings by the Africans, first in a meaningless round-robin game ? both teams had already qualified for the final ? and then in last Saturday?s final itself, confirmed everything we feared.

The road to next year?s World Cup continues to be a rocky one and as much as the national squad have improved in the last year under the guidance of Gus Logie, we?re still a very long way from competing even with the likes of Zimbabwe, a country where cricket has been thrown into turmoil in recent years, their Test status temporarily suspended.

Prior to meeting Bermuda, Zimbabwe had suffered a 5-0 one-day series mauling from the West Indies as they continued to grapple with the loss of nearly all of their senior experienced players.

Bermuda can only get better from playing stronger sides, and one suspects some valuable lessons will have been learned from the trip to Trinidad, not least that in order to compete at that level a premium has to be put on physical fitness.

And that?s one area where Logie?s men probably haven?t improved as much as they should.

On the visit to Namibia last year, the United Arab Emirates earlier this year and against Zimbabwe last week, the general consensus has been that Bermuda?s players were often less fit, less agile than their opposition.

That?s a problem that can be addressed and hopefully will improve the more matches they play.

Indeed, it isn?t all doom and gloom.

Players such as Irving Romaine, Dean Minors and Lionel Cann, in particular, continue to show that they have what it takes to play at a higher level.

Pace bowler George O?Brien showed glimpses last week of the type of form required to dismantle the world?s best bats.

Absent skipper Clay Smith, still recuperating from knee surgery, has already demonstrated in the past that he possesses the necessary class.

And one has to think that if those players mentioned continue to improve along with the return of Smith and the introduction of Bermuda-born English county player David Hemp who is scheduled to join the squad later this year, Bermuda will develop into a far more accomplished side than when they qualified for the World Cup last summer.

Logie has always insisted that preparation for the Cup finals would be a gradual process, and although there are times when it seems we take one step forward and two back, by and large there have been sufficient positives to suggest that progress is being made.

In the next couple of weeks, the squad will be in England and the Channel Islands, taking on the likes of the Sussex county second eleven, Lloyds of London and Guernsey, teams, which on paper at least, they should be able beat.

But results apart, the tour is more important as an exercise to experiment with the batting line-up, particularly at the top of the order, to improve players? running between the wickets, to build up the bowlers? confidence, and to work on all the areas of weakness which were so savagely exposed by the Zimbabweans last week.