The cricket season is little more than two weeks old and already some familiar issues have reared their ugly heads.Bad behaviour, poor umpiring, and sloppy cricket have all been in evidence, but it is the first two that are still causing the most problems for the game in Bermuda.Willow Cuts bowler Malachi Jones is due to appear before a disciplinary committee this evening for an incident during his side’s Belco Cup semi-final more than two weeks ago. There were also several examples of bad behaviour this past weekend which may yet result in more hearings.Not that you would necessarily know this because the Bermuda Cricket Board steadfastly refuse to comment on these proceedings. When asked to do so, their standard response has been: “We currently don’t comment on pending disciplinary matters but we will announce the result once the player and the club have been informed.”In reality this normally means that the outcome isn’t publicised until at least a week after the hearing, and, as was the case on several occasions last summer, only come out once a player’s ban has been served.According to several people close to the disciplinary process, the reason for this approach is that the BCB hierarchy are worried about affecting current or potential sponsors.However, not only does that beg the question, what sponsorship? That stance also does the umpires and the game no good either. As one member of the committee has often said in the past: “Surely naming and shaming players early would do them and us far more good than hiding away and pretending it doesn’t happen.”In private the Island’s umpires will tell you that they have felt poorly supported by the Board in the past, and are often made to feel like the bad guys when it comes to the hearings themselves. In publically naming offenders early, the Board may find this is just as big an incentive to behave, as a two-match ban is.Umpires though aren’t entirely blameless for the combative atmosphere regularly seen on display on the Island’s cricket fields. The frustration players feel towards the umpires, which too often crosses the boundary into unacceptable behaviour, comes from a lack of faith in the officials’ abilities.As one player pointed out this weekend: “It’s hard to walk when you know they are wrong.” Lionel Cann would certainly echo that sentiment, he was on the wrong end of a bad lbw decision on Sunday that ended his afternoon after just two balls.The most telling remark, however, came from Southampton Rangers skipper Dion Stovell, who, when his side were denied a strong lbw appeal against St David’s opener Delyone Borden in the same game, turned to his international team-mate and said: “In Dubai, you would’ve been out.”Whatever the implications of that statement are, the important aspect of it is that the Island’s players are being put at an immediate disadvantage to their international opponents.On several occasions over the past 12 months Bermuda’s batsmen, Stovell included, have been left bemused by lbw decisions that went against them, ones that aren’t always given in domestic cricket.Umpires though do not intentionally make mistakes and are suffering as much as the players from the lack of a process to improve themselves.As a group they meet on a Tuesday to discuss a weekend’s events, and yet they have no ability to go back and see where they might have gone wrong.In the Elite Player League on Saturday for example, two of the less experienced members of the Bermuda Umpires Cricket Association stood in the first game, and made a decision that would certainly require some reviewing.Hunt’s XI batsman Fiqre Crockwell tried to cut a shortish ball from Justin Pitcher, missed, and when wicketkeeper Regino Smith caught the ball, both appealed for a caught behind. Umpire James McKirdy initially ruled it not out, but then changed his mind after fellow umpire Caleb Jean-Pierre, who was stood at square leg, slightly raised a finger to indicate he thought it was out.Given that Jean-Pierre’s view of the incident was obstructed by Crockwell’s body, he was probably not in the best position to over-rule his colleague. This, plus several other contentious decisions all need to be reviewed and learned from.However, as no senior umpire was on hand at the National Sports Centre on Saturday, and there is no video from the Premier Division games, it is hard to see how this might happen.As one coach put it: “The players understand that umpires will make mistakes, but it’s difficult to take when nothing changes.”