GOVERNMENT these days don’t seem to get an awful lot right.

To their fiercest critics that might even be an understatement.

But on the contentious issue of the importation of soil — the stuff required if Bermuda is to shed its tag as the only one-day international cricket playing nation unable to contest the sport in its own backyard — then Environment Minister Neletha Butterfield appears to have done her homework.

Her announcement in the House of Assembly last week that strict regulations would be bent in order to bring in the type of soil required to haul the National Sports Centre pitch up to International Cricket Council standards has, as expected, sparked a storm of controversy — stirred by the ‘green team’, farmers and, of course, the Opposition UBP, eager to grasp any opportunity to score political points.

But do any of these protesters really know what they’re talking about?

Agricultural experts have long insisted that Bermuda simply doesn’t have the type of soil required to build a first-class cricket pitch, that importation was the only way to go, and the risks would be minimal.

The same problem has been tackled in a similar manner in other countries without the controversy and with no repercussions.

Here in Bermuda we sometimes seem to jump on any issue without any grasp of the facts.

As has been pointed out this week following Butterfield’s announcement, plants are regularly imported to Bermuda, we’ve brought in enormous amounts of sand to furnish our golf courses, and yes, even the National Sports Centre, and what about the hundreds of Christmas trees that hit these shores every December?

All have to undergo rigorous testing.

One has to believe that in this day and age, the sterilisation that would rid soil of the type of pests that could harm Bermuda’s fragile and precious environment would be at such a level and dispensed by highly-trained experts, that any potential risk would be permanently eliminated.

Presumably tests would be carried out at the point of embarkation and again upon its arrival.

One wonders whether the emotional outbursts this week by the likes of environmentalist Stuart Hayward and farmer Tom Wadson, who clearly know more than most about the risks of soil importation, and by Opposition MPs (who likely don’t), stand up against the opinion of cricket pitch experts such as Andy Atkinson who has worked on behalf of the ICC for many years, has seen similar problems in other countries and has labelled the outcry here in Bermuda as ‘political claptrap’.

Atkinson, incidentally, is the same man who on his visit to the Island a couple of years ago labelled the cricket pitch at the NSC ‘unfit to grow carrots’ let alone host international games.

He’s said all along the only way to go is to import the right type of soil. And having overseen the construction of pitches in almost every Test-playing country in the world, his opinion should be worthy of consideration.

While non-cricket lovers might consider the controversy something of a storm in a teacup, they might want to look at the bigger picture.

The benefits to not only the sport but Bermuda as a whole if our national team were able to host some of the game’s leading teams would be enormous . . . in terms of both exposure and tourism spin-offs.

Most ODIs these days are televised, visiting teams bring with them a large entourage of players, officials and families, all of whom fill hotel beds, and in the case of international one-day series, which the ICC says Bermuda would be more than capable of hosting if the right pitches were available, the potential exists for a large number of visitors to jet in for an extended period of time, perhaps in the months when tourism is at its slowest.

And if we look at the issue from a purely sporting perspective, Bermuda’s top cricketers desperately need to play more quality opponents if they’re to improve on their disappointing performance at this year’s World Cup, and more importantly if they harbour any hopes of qualifying for the same spectacle in four years’ time.

In an environment rapidly crumbling under the weight of concrete, it seems odd such a fuss is now being made over the arrival of a few truck loads of dirt!

— ADRIAN ROBSON