ANOTHER year, another disappointment! However, life goes on. My team disappointed me last week at the Eastern County Cup Competition Finals, however, I am a die-hard fan who will never quit or stop supporting his club, his neighbourhood or his team. It is easy to give up but Saturday's game made me seriously consider coming out of retirement for just one more year. I love cricket and have loved it since I can remember, however, life takes over you sometimes. While many fans and many people have said many things to me about what happened to my team last week, my view is that throwing criticism at them will not solve the problem.

More on this after the Top 20.

Still holding at number one is Heaven Sent by Keyshia Cole.

Up to number two is Trey Songz' new hit, entitled Last Time.

Tumbling to number three is A Milli by Lil Wayne, who has quietly racked up quite a repertoire of hits.

Now a hot soca jam. Improving to number four is Love Is Wicked (Soca Remix) by Brick and Lace featuring Kess.

Falling to number five is Chris Brown's new single, Take You Down.

Advancing to number six is another soca anthem, Defence (the anthem) by Machel Montano featuring Lil Jon and Pitbull.

Slipping to number seven spot is I Luv Your Girl by The-Dream.

Up to number eight is Take A Bow, a sad love story by one of the hottest pop divas around, Rihanna.

Climbing to number nine is Put On by Young Jeezy featuring Kanye West.

Up a touch to number ten is Fall by Kimberley Locke.

Soaring to number 11 is When I Grow Up by the Pussycat Dolls, one of the hottest groups around.

Slipping to number 12 is a former essential new tune, Alicia Keys' Teenage Love Affair.

Falling to number 13 is Bust It Baby Part 2 by Plies featuring Ne-Yo.

Now some new hits. Up to number 14 is Give It To Me by Madonna, a kicking dance track.

The new track Spotlight by American Idol diva Jennifer Hudson advances to number 15. This diva can flat out blow. She has a lovely, powerful, soulful voice that seems to go on and on and on.

Up to number 16 is Road Jam, a soca kicker by recent visitor Shurwayne Winchester.

Soaring to number 17 is Jazmine Sullivan with her new hit entitled Need You Bad.

Improving to number 18 is Disturbia by hot girl Rihanna, a smooth dance track that currently sits atop international dance charts.

Climbing to number 19 is The Business by Yung Berg featuring Casha, a current hip hop fave.

Falling to number 20 is a former essential new banger, No Air, the hit by Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown. I'm not exactly in love with any of the versions of this track, but for some reasons others like it.

Now back to this week's words - Cleveland not winning the Eastern County Cup Competition - again.

I've talked to a lot of people who have a variety of opinions but the one common denominator is that they wanted Cleveland to beat St. David's. Let me start by congratulating Cleveland on bowling St. David's out for 149, a feat seldom accomplished and unlikely to happen very soon. Unfortunately, anyone who went to the game saw the kind of collapse that I warned last week that we must guard against, for everyone's sake. Well, that's cricket.

Rather than go on about what went wrong, I'd rather propose solutions.

The first suggestion is one I learned in the army. Even though my buddy, Charles Richardson, who is a good lawyer and Cleveland player, could successfully argue that I'm entering into the realm of hypocrisy with the following statement, I'll make it anyway. "The best thing for a retired General to do is to hand in his suit along with his opinions", which is a saying that I heard quoted by a brethren from St. David's, Lt. Col. Eddie Lamb. I think this is true for retired cricketers as well but because my suggestions are positive and not exactly critical and because I write what I want, I'm going to list my solutions here anyway. Writer's privilege.

2. Rather than criticising the team, fans, former players and other supporters should ask what they can do to help the team to be more successful in developing its cricket programme in the future. It takes a whole village to raise a child and, in our case, it seems as if it is going to take our whole village to raise our cricket team. Also, most people respond better to positive reinforcement than they do to negative reinforcement and/or excessive criticism.

3. The community must support the team in ways other than just showing up at the County Games. We have some fans that attend normal league matches but many more who only turn up for County Games. My sense is that if the turnout at league and other cup games was greater, the guys would be used to playing in front of large crowds all year and be not so fazed by the big occasion that is the Eastern Counties.

4. While we all know that the Eastern County games are what really matters the most to everyone within all of the counties, we must start to view things the way they do in the British Premiership, whereby league performance is also valued and held in high regard. Thus, although its nice to perform on a "Big Day", we must encourage the team to strive for the kind of consistency needed to win league titles, for this will lead to good performances in Cup fixtures as well, including and most especially the Eastern County Cup Competition.

5. People within our community must encourage their sons, nephews, neighbours sons, neighbourhood kids, and all young men in the community to play cricket, to try out for the team, to get involved in the youth teams and think long term about developing good players who can be around for years to come.

6. More older men in the community must assist in some capacity with the team and the cricket programme and stop leaving the responsibility to a few. There are lots of jobs available and ways to contribute. Like any charity, the team needs volunteers. With the advent of so many charities these days, community, social and workmen's clubs have become like a forgotten stepchild. These social clubs in past years and in past generations were an important part of the fabric within the Bermudian community, notwithstanding the negative things they did (like encourage drinking and smoking and take men away from their families). These clubs were especially important among black Bermudians, who were able to collaborate, work together, invest together, pool resources, accumulate assets and develop business skills when these types of opportunities in the general community were not available to them. It seems that with the abolition of segregation, many black Bermudians have rushed to join other more mixed associations and have abandoned the social clubs that gave them and their ancestors their first start and opportunities. Let's not forget the clubs in our community. We must support the Cleveland County Cricket Club and the Harrington Workmen's Club.

7. People in the Harris Bay community must accept that one of the ways to keep young men off the streets is to have positive activities for them. These clubs can offer positive activities, although clubs are only as strong as the membership.

8. The people who claim to be supporters of the club should become financial members. Last time I checked the dues were no more than $100 per year. This is a small price to pay for membership in a club like ours and just imagine what the club could do if 500 people in the community became financial members? That's $50,000 that the club could use for programmes for the youth, adults, toddlers, women and young ladies. The list is endless. Look at what other clubs like St. David's, Somerset, St. George and others have been able to accomplish. It all starts with members and those members must pay their dues.

9. Now, the players. If the club and the community dedicate the resources and level of support indicated in the above list, the players must increase their commitment. While I know that some players have given a good effort, the consensus is that there is room for improvement regarding turnout at training and total commitment before, during and after training. Specifically, I am referring to players doing some fitness, training and general preparation outside practice sessions and becoming true students of the game.

Lastly on this subject, players should be aware that what you get out of something is equal to what you put into it.

This includes what they put into their bodies, be it food or anything else that might negatively impact their performance and/or inhibit the body's ability to perform at its optimum level. There is an old adage that goes, "Garbage in, garbage out". I will leave it at that.

So, we have a mandate for next year. Support from the entire community and total commitment to excellence by players and officials. That should help us to win a league title and possibly the Eastern County Cup, or at a minimum, give a better account of ourselves than we did this year and last.

Bless up ¿