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Cricket decline ‘we need inquiry’ says Hill

Former Bermuda wicketkeeper/batsman Ricky Hill has called for a full inquiry into the Island’s disastrous ICC World Twenty20 qualifying campaign in Dubai.Five losses in as many matches has left Bermuda anchored at the bottom of Group A with their hopes of appearing at September’s ICC World Twenty20 finals in Sri Lanka having long been dashed.Bermuda cricket reached dizzying heights when the national side qualified for the 2007 ICC World Cup. But since then the Island’s fortunes on the international stage have taken a dreadful turn for the worse despite Government pumping millions into the sport, with Bermuda losing its ODI status and being relegated to the ICC World Cricket League Division Three.Hill now wants to see an inquiry involving all of cricket’s stakeholders to try and buck the trend once Bermuda’s national team return from Dubai.“I would say an inquiry would have to be the number one priority when the boys return home,” he said. “We need to have an inquiry to get to the bottom of this.“I think we need to look at what the problems are and what we need to do to make it better because we do have some good youngsters coming through and they must be discouraged when they see these results.“We really need to have a good look at the situation because the Board (Bermuda Cricket Board) were given 11 million dollars when they qualified for the World Cup but since then we haven’t done anything, and that just doesn’t add up to me.“I just can’t figure out how do you go from qualifying for the 2007 World Cup to getting relegated to Division Three (World Cricket League Division Three) I don’t even know who plays in Division Three.”Hill said other countries have made progress while Bermuda have stood still since appearing at the World Cup.“To see that teams like Denmark and Hong Kong have now developed and gone past Bermuda saddens me because it gives an indication that we haven’t improved our cricket at that level,” he added. “Every time you look the ICC are giving Bermuda an award for having the best developing programme. But what are we really developing?“We were up there with Bangladesh and all of a sudden we are playing in Division Three. Everybody wants to talk about Cup Match but we need to be playing more international cricket because other countries (Associate) are getting better and more organised whereas we don’t seem to be getting any better.“We need to turn this around in order to be more recognised at the international level because it’s just not happening at the moment.“I don’t know if it is the team’s harmony or they are just not good enough, but it’s almost as if we are going into the game defeated before we even play.”