Restrictions forbidding the importation of foreign soil could be removed during the next parliamentary session in an effort to resolve the long-running saga of the National Sports Centre’s sub-standard cricket square.

Sports Minister Randy Horton told The Royal Gazette yesterday that it was Government’s intention to amend the environmental regulations — which have proved the thorn in the side of any progress on this well-documented issue for over three years — soon after parliament reconvenes on Friday.

And if the amendments pass, the square will be re-laid “as soon as possible” Horton added, with international cricket therefore likely to return to the NSC by the beginning of next summer.

“I’m certainly looking forward to getting this situation resolved,” Horton said.

“We have been prevented from re-laying the square because of environmental regulations, but we are going to go to Parliament to try and get these amended.

“If and when that is done we will then have an opportunity to start work on the square. So I would say that this summer might come a bit too soon, but certainly by next season we hope to be in a position to host international cricket in Bermuda.

“Just to make it clear though, once we’re in a position to proceed, the soil we purchase will be treated at both ends to ensure there are no harmful environmental repercussions.”

Nobody from Bermuda Cricket Board was available to comment on the Minister’s statement yesterday as most of the executive are either still in the Caribbean or making their way back from last Saturday’s World Cup final in Barbados.

The BCB have made no secret of their frustration with the absence of a viable venue to host international cricket, with Bermuda being the only one of the 16 competing teams at the World Cup not to possess a home ground accredited by the International Cricket Council.

“We’ve been frustrated for a while now with the absence of a fully-accredited ground in Bermuda,” BCB chief executive Neil Speight said during the World Cup.

“We’ve got absolutely no doubt that Test teams would love to come to the Island to play and practice, but without a proper ground it has made things very difficult for us.

“Unfortunately the Board have no control over the progress being made at the National Sports Centre, but we’re all hoping the problems with the wicket will be sorted out soon because it’s been going on for quite some time.

“In our discussions with (Premier) Ewart Brown, he has pledged his full support and we’ve made it very clear that the absence of an accredited ground is a major obstacle for us in terms of fulfilling our goals.”

It was when the Island hosted the Americas Championship in July, 2004 that problems with the wicket first came to light, with batsmen from all competing countries complaining about how quickly the pitch deteriorated as well as the chronically uneven bounce.

Later in the year, the ICC’s pitch consultant Andy Atkinson famously declared the square’s soil was “only suitable for growing carrots” and said the only way to make it playable was to completely re-lay it with higher quality soil from overseas.

Tests conducted on a wide cross-section of soils from many different parts of the Island have shown that local clay is just not durable enough to produce wickets of international class.

As an experiment last summer, NSC head groundsman Trevor Madeiros sprayed liquid glue over two of the pitches to help bind the notoriously crumbly soil together for a longer period.

The use of polyvinyl acetate (PVA) has become increasingly common on one-day pitches in the UK and received solid reviews from national coach Gus Logie after the national team’s games against Trinidiadian club side Clico Preysal in September.