ERMUDA'S defeats to Canada and the United States in last week's Americas Championship came as no surprise to those who follow cricket seriously on this island. Despite thrashing both Argentina and Bahamas and pulling off a very creditable victory against a well prepared Cayman Islands side strengthened by a number of quality foreign imports, it soon became clear against Canada and the USA, that the majority of our national team cricketers were simply not prepared to play 50 over cricket at that level.

This suspicion was confirmed during Bermuda's first Intercontinental Cup game against the US which finished yesterday. Many of Bermuda's batsman, bloated on a diet of mediocre domestic league cricket for most of their cricketing lives, looked like fish out of water on a dry, turning wicket against good spinners and a number of fielders prowling close around the bat.

And it should be obvious to almost all knowledgeable cricket followers who watch the national team play, that we do not possess bowlers, with the notable exception of left-arm spinner Dwayne Leverock, who can consistently trouble batsman of international class ? even on the dodgiest of wickets provided by the National Sports Centre.

While there are deeper flaws in the structure and organisation of the game on the island, it has to be said that the Bermuda Cricket Board did not help themselves in any way by organising a grossly inadequate schedule of preparation for such an important regional event while the furore of wicketkeeper Jason Anderson's exclusion from the national squad was caused by a completely inconsistent selection process.

In the Board's defence, they had been led to believe by those who organised the tour of Lloyd's cricket club to Bermuda, that the national team would be given a stern examination by an outfit which would contain a whole host of cricketers with national and county honours to their name.

s it turned out, though many of them may have been good cricketers in their youth, age and heavy work commitments had clearly blunted their capabilities on a cricket field, while many of the younger tourists seemed more interested in beer and carousing than giving the local national team a thorough work-out.

And although we in the sports media have made careers out of building up individuals and teams with reports full of expectation, only so that we can knock them down again if they fail, the reality is that we should never have expected anything else but failure.

As I and many others continue to say, cricket on our tiny island has wallowed in a quagmire of mediocrity for almost two decades, held back by limited and unimaginative administrators and a club scene which has generally become lazy, insular and unambiguous.

Youth cricket is still in a state of disrepair, pitches have become worse, practice facilities have seriously degenerated and enthusiasm for the game in society at large has also fallen considerably in the face of years of wanton neglect and the increasingly attractive competition of American sports on cable television.

But for once, the general picture is perhaps not all doom and gloom.

Though we will continue to struggle at even the lowest echelons of international competition for some time yet, reforms have been put in place and initiatives pursued which may very well turn the tide in the next five to ten years.

The changes to the basic structure of league cricket in Bermuda, implemented by the newly formed technical committee over the winter, were much needed and have proved popular with the players, after an inevitable bout of initial suspicion.

Rather than lumbering monotonously from one tedious 50-over competition to another, Bermuda's club cricketers, both young and old, are now being given the opportunity to play over two days on a regular enough basis and encouraged to bat for long periods and to move away from the restrictive, defensive mindset imposed upon bowlers and captains in limited overs cricket.

Much of what the technical committee came up with has had a energising influence on the local club scene and will go along way to ensuring that we are developing our cricketers in the most effective way possible.

There is a second reason for Bermudian cricket fans to be optimistic about the future, and that comes in the form of the industrious Neil Speight, the only full-time member at the cricket board.

Though he was appointed Treasurer on a part-time basis some time ago, Speight has been employed full time for three years, and his role now seems to have grown to encompass everything a part from bleaching the office toilets at the BCB.

With Speight at the helm, Bermuda has secured two annual places at the University of Port Elizabeth Cricket Academy in South Africa, a spot for young St.David's seam bowler Steffan Kelly at Oakham School in the UK, one of the most powerful cricketing public schools in the British Isles and a plethora of lucrative sponsorship packages from the private sector.

And in conjunction with Harper, he has gone about ensuring that our junior national teams are provided with regular exposure to international competition, a trend which is set to continue this summer with the Under 15's and Under 23's going away for extended tours to the Caribbean.

here are those who privately growl their disapproval of his presence, pointing out that his appointment flew in the face of the BCB's constitutional requirement that you must be Bermudian to work for the governing body.

But with rumours surfacing that Speight is about to be officially recognised for his efforts with a larger salary and a new job title, thankfully it seems that those at the board recognise that they have finally found somebody of immense worth, who tends to back up words with comprehensive action ? something which has been sorely lacking in past administrations.

But there is still much to be done.

As Bermuda's Under 15 coach coach Grant Smith pointed out this week, the BCB is still not doing enough to foster the development of cricket in schools. There is no coherent cricket programme while only a few schools actually play cricket against each other. The establishment of a direct feeder link between school, club and the national programme is absolutely pivotal to the future well being of the game on this island and should be the top priority. As has been said before, the continued absence of a state of the art national cricket academy, with indoor nets, a gymnasium, video analysis rooms and the like, is also hindering the development of the game, though board officials continue to insist privately that this is too lofty an ambition given the amount of money involved.

But as regular letter writer Recman has implied in his letters criticism of the Board for pursuing the costly and "unrealistic" fantasy of hosting World Cup games in 2007, are we not trying to run before we can walk?

The BCB and the government spent close to $350,000 on what has turned out to be a futile bid, and now faces the dilemma of pouring yet more money into meaningless warm-up games.

ow on earth can we justify spending that much money on an event such as the World Cup when many of our club grounds do not even possess cricket nets in which to practice?

Surely the emphasis should have been placed all along in investing heavily in our cricketing infrastructure, in making sure that our club grounds have the facilities they need and that we have effective youth programmes in place which stand the test of time.

Only then, I believe, can we even begin to start holding such lofty aspirations.

From where we now stand however, Bermuda does have a tremendous opportunity to qualify for the World Cup at the ICC Trophy in Ireland next year.

With the International Cricket Council's obsession with spreading the game globally, a total of five places at the tournament will now be up for grabs, out of the 12 competing teams.

It is absolutely imperative that the board makes sure that the senior national squad stays together as a close knit unit until that time, and plays at least 15 competitive matches, both home and away, against quality opposition who will demand Bermuda's players stretch their ability to the limit.

For now however, those of us who care passionately about the game in this country can only wait and hope that the powers that be finally get it right.