Janeiro Tucker has vehemently refuted claims that he and business associate Mahesh Hatkar are members of the new coaching panel for the national cricket squad.

Bermuda Cricket Board president Lloyd Smith named the pair among a four-member coaching panel that will be preparing the national team for upcoming international commitments this year in an interview on Wednesday with The Royal Gazette.

However, Tucker said that “there is no truth” to Smith’s statement and has moved swiftly to distance himself and Hatkar from the new set-up.

“I have to clear my name because I am not a part of this and I have not agreed to become coach of the national training squad,” Tucker said on Thursday.

“I was asked but I said to them that certain things needed to be done before I can agree with Mahesh, who works for me. We are running the cricket academy and they cannot approach Mahesh about anything.

“We never agreed to say that we were going on board with the BCB because there is a lot of stuff that needs to be put into perspective before we agree to anything. We are not part of that four-man national coaching staff.”

Hatkar has been granted a work permit to head youth programmes at 186 Cricket Academy and Tucker is angry at the statement made by Smith yesterday.

“We just can’t say we are going to go and be a part of something as we need a contract,” Tucker said.

“Mahesh runs my cricket academy, so my cricket academy has to be affiliated with them for him to be part of anything with the Board.

“He is contracted to 186 Cricket Academy. He’s the head of youth development for our programme and that’s what his work permit is for.

“For the BCB to say he’s part of their set-up, there is no truth to it, and I just want to make sure that really gets out there because he just can’t be part of that as he is the head of 186 Cricket Academy.”

Tucker said he was approached by the BCB last year over the possibility of himself and Hatkar joining the national set-up as batting coaches.

“They said they wanted us to be batting coaches but nothing has been presented to us going forward or even when they approached us months ago,” he said.

“They still want us but no contract has been signed, no agreement to say what we are doing, how many days a week we are needed, and at this stage we don’t really want to be part of it.

“We are getting ready to run our cricket academy and that should be starting soon, so I just can’t see why they would say that we are part of this four-man coaching staff and the new coaching set up.”

BCB president Smith said that the organisation chose not to hire a direct replacement for Cal Waldron, who has coached the national team after the departure of Niraj Odedra in 2023, and instead have assembled a coaching panel to “deal with the different aspects of coaching”.

Smith, who is also high-performance committee chairman after the retirement of Allan Douglas Sr, also named Herbie Bascome and George O’Brien Jr among the coaching panel that is assisting the national team’s preparations for the North American Cup, which is scheduled to take place in the Cayman Islands from April 4 to 12.

Bermuda will begin their quest to qualify for the 2028 ICC T20 World Cup on home turf this year after being granted hosting rights for the T20 World Cup Americas Sub-Regional Qualifier, which will be held at the National Sports Centre from June 19 to 28.

The BCB have announced a 25-member training squad for April’s tournament in the Caribbean to again be led by captain Terryn Fray.