Lance Gibbs has told Bermuda?s premier batsman that they will never consistently succeed against quality international teams unless they drastically improve their discipline and shot selection at the crease.

The former West Indies offspinner was on the Island over the weekend for a specially arranged training camp with coach Gus Logie?s national squad, accompanied by two former West Indian captains in Richie Richardson and Courtney Walsh.

Squad members were put through their paces over three action-packed mornings at the National Sports Centre in the hands of the illustrious visitors.

Richardson, who averaged a shade under 45 at Test level, spent the vast majority of his time working with the batsman, while Walsh and Gibbs cast their expert eye over the bowlers at Bermuda?s disposal.

Walsh was the former world record Test wicket holder with 519, while Gibbs became the first spinner in Test match history to take 300 wickets, finishing with 309.

And after only three training sessions, he cut right to the heart of the side?s present shortcomings.

?I was impressed with what I saw overall,? said the 71-year-old from Guyana, Bermuda?s appointed ?Legend? as part of the Stanford 20-20 tournament, taking place in Antigua in July, and here with his fellow Test stars as part of the $28m being pumped into the event by the Texan billionaire to bring all participants up to the highest possible level.

?The one thing that was a bit of a disappointment was the tendency of some of the batsman to continually hit the ball in the air and give their wickets away. Obviously we were only practising in the nets and I?d have to watch them more closely in a game situation, but that seemed to me to be the biggest problem.

?Playing cricket on small grounds like you have in Bermuda, it is possible to get away with that sort of thing. But against good bowlers on decent sized grounds that approach is not going to work and they are going to learn the hard way.

?I was very honest with all of them. The point I was making was that I would not have to work very hard to get them out in a game because they play too many shots, or more importantly a lot of them play the wrong shot at the wrong time. From what I can see, they all have reasonable techniques and a good eye for a ball ? but they won?t ever do well in One Day Internationals or at the World Cup if they carry on batting the same way. There has to be a change of mindset.?

On the positive side, Gibbs said he had no doubts over Bermuda?s potential to compete at the highest level.

But he stressed that there could be no let up in effort or ambition if the squad is to do themselves justice.

?My impression is that they understand the level of responsibility that has been placed on them,? he said.

?Their lives are very different now compared to before they qualified for the World Cup and in terms of their behaviour, in terms of their attitude and their training, everything has got to be right. They are more in the public view than they were before because they are now considered World Cup players ? and that sort of thing brings with it extra pressure. There?s no question in my mind that they can acquit themselves well at the World Cup. There are some decent players here and I look forward to working with them again.?.