National coach Mark Harper says two elements are important for the reintroduction of two-day cricket to be successful.

First, the structure must be geared to reap maximum benefit and, secondly, all clubs must buy into the new format.

“Two-day cricket is crucial to Bermuda if we are really serious about development,” said Harper. “Two-day cricket must be part of the programme but it's important the format provides players with the opportunity to have a different mindset and approach to the game.”

“Just having a two-day game is not going to help our development unless it's structured to provide as much opportunity as possible for batsmen to build innings or for bowlers to develop their craft,” he noted following a vote last Thursday by Bermuda Cricket Board (BCB) members to experiment with two-day games again.

Explaining his thinking, Harper reasoned that for players to appreciate fully the developmental aspects of two-day cricket, on-field play should be “complemented by effective training programmes and discussions about good tactics and things like that” as part of the overall structural support.

He called on all clubs to embrace the two-day game, saying that unless “all clubs are committed to it I don't think we will be able to achieve the objectives we're striving for”.

The former Guyana national player outlined positives for both batsmen and bowlers once two-day cricket was properly utilised.

Regarding batsmen, he pointed out, it gave them an opportunity “to be more constructive in their innings; the way they put their innings together and to have more selective strokeplay”.

“They need to pick up the ones and twos - you know, working the ball around in the gaps - and work in partnerships instead of going crash, bang, wallop. Teams must look to bat longer.”

He said it would also give bowlers - the young ones in particular - an opportunity to develop their craft.

There could however be, he cautioned, a worrisome flipside if teams did not go about things in a proper manner.

“Some captains could depend on their experienced and successful bowlers and that could work against the development of young bowlers.

“For instance, you will have more overs now and that would give captains the option of bowling their best bowlers for more overs instead of encouraging a young bowler to develop. So things like that have to be looked at.

“Everybody would be trying to win but, at the same time, captains must be careful they give young bowlers with potential a chance to develop instead of just relying on two or three bowlers to operate for a whole day,” said Harper.

Other challenges facing two-day cricket, he believed would be the availability of players and umpires as well as “getting quality pitches that last two days”.

“Those are serious things that would need to be addressed,” he told The Royal Gazette.

As for whether the two-day results should be combined with those from the limited-overs format for one set of league standings or whether they should be kept separate, the national coach offered this opinion.

“They are two different competitions (so) you have to have two different standings. But, you must come up with something that's going to provide a good yardstick for how you're going to decide promotion and relegation.

“That's the challenge now - to come up with that system because you're playing two different competitions.”