The problems facing Bermuda cricket are many and the solutions are not easy, Irving Romaine, the former Bermuda captain, said yesterday.

Romaine, who captained the team at the 2007 World Cup in Trinidad, expressed his sadness at Bermuda’s decline since that tournament, despite about $11 million being pumped into the sport by Government since 2005.

Bermuda finished bottom of the ICC World Cricket League Division One in 2007 but reached for the World Cup qualifying tournament in 2009, where they came ninth out of 12 teams, suffering relegation to Division Two.

Two years later, they placed fifth out of six teams in Division Two, dropping down to Division Three.

The rot stopped briefly, but only just, with Bermuda narrowly avoiding relegation to Division Four last year when Chris Douglas’s knock of 89 enabled Bermuda to beat the United States and claim fourth in the Division Three tournament, held at home.

This week, however, the disturbing slump continued, with Bermuda winning only one of their five pool matches in Malaysia, and then the fifth-place play-off, finishing bottom of the standings to continue a descent to Division Four.

Romaine admits that the Island’s swift and painful fall from grace is hard to fathom.

“There are so many things that cause problems, but I feel playing for Bermuda should be an honour,” Romaine said.

“People still think Cup Match is more important than playing for Bermuda. Players would rather feel like a hero [in Cup Match] than go away and try to be a big fish in a big ocean.”

As coach of Bailey’s Bay, the Logic Premier Division side, and a PE teacher at Berkeley Institute, Romaine is well placed to access where the domestic game is going horribly wrong.

“I know a lot of players don’t feel special playing for Bermuda,” said Romaine, who coached Bermuda Under-19 last year and was first choice to replace the unwell Arnold Manders for the Malaysia tour but was unavailable.

“There’s more hype playing for Somerset or St George’s in Cup Match than representing your country.

“You see the Governor, the Premier and all the dignitaries at Cup Match, but nothing internationally. Obviously, we rode the wave of qualifying for the World Cup in Ireland in 2005, and money was then invested in the game.

“The investment really didn’t continue after the World Cup when we didn’t manage to stay in Division One — that’s perhaps where we fell off.”

Former West Indies batsman Gus Logie, who led Bermuda to the World Cup, has long departed, as has Australian David Moore, his successor. The frustration with Bermuda’s poor performances remains, as does the apathy of some players towards representing the country.

Add to that the lack of quality West Indian players helping to raise the standard of the domestic game — and subsequently qualifying to play for Bermuda — and it leaves the Island with a lack of depth, while many of the other Associate countries seem to be relying on players born outside the country they represent.

In the Eighties and Nineties, Bermuda had an array of talented West Indian-born players to call upon, such as Colin Blades, a former captain, Adrian King, Robert Hinds, Rupert Scotland, Winston Reid and Lionel Thomas.

Despite the Bermuda Cricket Board’s award-winning academy programme, the quality of home-grown players is not what it used to be. Romaine believes that the junior players do not play for long enough in the summer, in comparison with years ago when the Shell Youth League was thriving.

“The crop of players who qualified for the World Cup were the last group of players who played Shell cricket,” Romaine said.

“Right now, we don’t even have a real senior schools’ competition, only at primary and middle schools. Cricket for the juniors starts in April and finishes at the end of May, with the last week of school being the last week of junior cricket. That’s because a lot of teams are school teams, like St George’s Prep and Saltus Grammar School.”

Romaine also believes that the win-at-all costs mentality and fear of relegation at the Premier Division clubs also hinders the development of young players.

“The top six or seven teams this year can’t afford to lose, so you can’t even groom youngsters,” he said.

“Cleveland, at one point, had Peter Philpott, Aaron Adams and Clay Smith playing; they are scared to develop young players like [Mikai] McGowan because they fear dropping points.

“So where are the young guys being groomed to take over, other than those playing in England?”

Romaine also feels that the players from the World Cup team should be better utilised. “A guy like ‘Sluggo’ [Dwayne Leverock] was the face of Bermuda cricket and has to be involved,” he said. “He’s going to get respect.

“We have to get people who were there in 2005 and 2007 back involved.”