Uncertain future for coach Moore
David Moore doesn’t know what his immediate future with Bermuda cricket is, but he does know that he has a lot of work ahead of him.Relegation to Division Three has come at a high financial cost for the Island, and there is the very real possibility that cuts, in programmes, and in staffing levels, will have to be made at a Bermuda Cricket Board that is going to be operating on a shoestring budget for the foreseeable future.“It’s too early to say what the future holds,” said Moore. “It depends mate, it’s going to be tough. We’ve lost $350,000-$400,000 out of this, we’ve lost more than a considerable amount from Government funding.”Not that the Australian wants to go anywhere. He believes he still has a lot to do on the Island, not least of which is preparing a side to win promotion back to Division Two in a little less than two years time.“When these tournaments come around once every two years you can’t afford to slip up. We lose money out of the high performance budget, we lose the opportunity to play against the top 10 teams in the world, we’re now probably 11 or 12 (in the world).“And now we’ve got to go down and survive the banana skins of Division Three, and we saw in that tournament that Denmark and the US went down, and I would never have picked them to go down.“There are issues there. We’ve got to look to the future, that’s another two years away. We’ve got to look at who’s going to be in the team in two years’ time. Look at under-19s players coming through, and look if there are any real quality under-15s guys coming through who might be able to make their debut at 17.“We’ve got to have a forward plan and we have to be able to replace players that are injured, chronically, or decide to retire, or whatever it might be.“There is a lot of planning that is going to have to go into the next two years, to get us to a position to where we are going to win Division Three and get back and start fighting in Division Two.”As well as preparing for the fight to escape Division Three, Moore also believes he has work to do in improving cricket’s infrastructure in Bermuda. And that includes getting some proper practice facilities.“From my point of view there is still infrastructure that needs to be put in place. There is more netting that needs to be done.“I cannot believe that on an Island that has been to a World Cup and has been in the High Performance programme for such a long time, that there are no turf practice wickets on the Island. That’s a crime.“We’ve got to get to a situation where we start really looking at the infrastructure and the legacy we can leave in place, for the long term. And the first thing we need to start looking at is turf wickets, and the second thing we need to look at is getting a relationship so that we can have turf and synthetic practice wickets right near a field of quality, so that we can do fielding practice and bowling and batting practice at the same field.“Which is what every other f***ng civilised cricket nation in the world does.”Before all of that though, Moore has to pick his players back up for the Twenty20 World Cup Regional Qualifiers in Florida in July.“We’ve got the T20 now to play for in Florida in July, so we’ve got to prepare for that,“ said Moore. “Again we are looking for guys who are on the job, on the ball, there are opportunities for guys. It’ll be interesting to see how the Elite Player’s League goes, and who puts their names forward there.“It’s important for us to continually look to improve Bermuda cricket, and that’s the whole idea.”David Hemp, meanwhile, still wants to captain the team in July, if the Board let him.The Bermuda skipper said he had no desire to walk away from the national side, despite the disappointment of yesterday’s result . . . although he acknowledged that it might be a decision that is taken out of his hands.“That’s not for me, that’s for the Board to decide. It’s not my decision,” said Hemp.“I obviously want to carry on playing, but that’s up to the Board to make that decision, and obviously I’ll run with that decision.”