“Once we go home it is back to nine-to-five, dealing with your family, training in the evening twice a week and then trying to play with your club on Sundays and maybe Saturdays. We have to make a living so we have to put our jobs first and our cricket second.”

So said Bermuda cricket captain Irving Romaine, who was given an ovation at his last news conference at the cricket World Cup.

For Bermuda, simply being competitive at this year’s World Cup was all it could realistically hope for. Having done well just to make it as the smallest country ever to qualify, the team certainly played with pride and there were moments when it demonstrated its ability. Dwayne Leverock’s bowling against England, Malachi Jones’ first ball wicket, David Hemp’s classy innings against India and Saleem Mukuddem’s bowling against Bangladesh all stood out, as did Lionel Cann’s powerful sixes and the general quality of the fielding.

But the bright moments were few and far between, and the team comes home with the dubious distinction of being on the wrong end of at least two records, having conceded the highest number of runs in a World Cup match and having been beaten by the widest ever margin. It is true that Bermuda steadily improved through the tournament. Its batsmen went from looking like deer caught in headlights against England to playing a reasonably good innings against Bangladesh in the most trying conditions.

But even in that match, when there was a chance of an upset, the same old mistakes were made. Key early wickets were given away cheaply and when Bangladesh were in trouble at 35-3, Bermuda lacked the depth and the killer instinct to put them away.

So Bermuda’s performance is exhibit 1 for those arguing against the inclusion of the “minnows” in the World Cup.

On the other hand, Ireland, by tying with Zimbabwe and stunning Pakistan to qualify for the “Super Eight”, show that the associate nations on their day can beat first class teams, and the ICC is right to continue to encourage cricket among non-Test nations.

But Bermuda will not have helped the case.

The Island has two options now. Either it can choose not to aim for full international status and all that goes with it and simply try to excel at the level below, or it can aim to raise its entire game. There is a good case to be made for the latter. Realistically, Bermuda’s best chance of performing in a team sport at the very highest level is in cricket, both because of our long tradition and natural talent and because the competition is much smaller than it is in football.

But if Bermuda is to excel, it has to devote itself to being a nation of specialists, in the same way that, for example, New Zealand is in rugby or Fiji is in rugby sevens. Only then can the Island truly hope to punch above its weight. It means raising the quality of facilities around the Island to a vastly higher level, including having a first class wicket for touring Test sides, pushing the sport much harder in the schools — where it has effectively dropped off the sports curriculum, investing heavily in youth development and steering as many talented athletes as possible to the sport.

The Bermuda Cricket Board has done a good job on development since the Island qualified for the World Cup two years ago.

Players have been sent abroad for extended periods of training, some have had their educations funded, junior leagues, which were pretty much moribund just a few years ago, have improved and are continuing to do so, and Bermuda’s players of all ages are getting much wider exposure to international cricket.

But this process has to be accelerated if Bermuda wants to qualify again for the World Cup — no easy task in itself with several core players almost certain to have retired — and then to perform better in the next World Cup in 2011. If there is a next time, “just making it” will not be enough.