Anybody who walked through the gates of the National Sports Centre last week could not have failed to be impressed by the set-up at the 20-20 World Cricket Classic.

Though organisers were somewhat disappointed with the spectator turnout during the week, by common consent the ground looked superb, shedding light on its potential to one day host top-class international cricket.

That goal is still a fair way off, however, with the ?soil saga? not yet fully resolved and the long-awaited Centre Core years away from completion.

But with the tournament now over, there is room to reflect on its success as well as its future and to address a debate which will become increasingly prominent if Bermuda are competitive at the World Cup and go on to retain their One-Day International status in 2009: should the North Field become a designated cricket ground or should it continue as a multi-purpose facility?

On the first question, it would be difficult to find anybody with a bad word to say about the Classic and the packed-house on finals day gave a clear indication of the great interest it generated across a broad-spectrum of Bermudians and expats.

The main hurdle now to it becoming one of the crown jewels of the Island?s sporting calendar is purely one of finance.

All in, the Classic cost in the region of $3 million and organisers are unsure at present as to whether they are going to break even.

Next year also, the tournament will clash with the World Cup and will have to be put back until May.

And the ongoing support of Government is also not yet secure and will depend on the outcome of the post-mortem due to take place over the next few months.

The future of the North Field is an altogether more divisive issue.

Bermuda Cricket Board have made no secret of the fact that they desperately need a venue at which to play One-Day Internationals and from which to base all their national team training on a year-round basis.

Some at the BCB are adamant that given their status as one of the Island?s national sports and given the scale of the national team?s recent achievements, the North Field should be used solely as a cricketing centre, with the under-used South Field becoming the host of the World Rugby Classic, Pee Wee Soccer clinics and the like.

Others say that the National Sports Centre trustees must do their utmost to help and promote all sports and that the North Field is too valuable a resource to be dominated by the BCB?s burgeoning ambitions.

On this latter question, Classic chief Keith Pont preferred to play it safe, arguing that they had given Bermuda a glimpse of how good a cricket ground the North Field could be and that it was now up to the public to have a constructive discussion on the issue.

The former Essex all-rounder and current head of the Get Fit Foundation was far keener to pay tribute to the scores of people who made the Classic possible while expressing the hope that Government would continue to put their considerable support behind the endeavour.

?Just before and through the tournament it really was frenetic and I do not think I have ever worked so hard on anything in my life,? he said.

?Everything ran reasonably smoothly, though behind the scenes of course it really was crazy. Whenever you put on something new, it is very much a learning process and there are certain things we will tweak if we are able to put this on again next year.

?Everybody who has worked on this has been sensational, from John Kane and Dave Mutch from the World Rugby Classic group who were brilliant partners here in Bermuda through to all the volunteers who gave up their time to help.

?Of course, I must also mention my two colleagues from the Get Fit Foundation, Steve Blackman and Caroline Knox. Words cannot describe how impressed I was with their energy and enthusiasm in getting something like this on.

?I lost count of the number of players who came up to me to say how much they had loved Bermuda and the event. They all thought it was fantastic and what I?m sure will happen now is that word of mouth will take over and there will be enormous interest from other players looking ahead to next year.

?The likes of Australia and England are keen to come back with even stronger sides, which will obviously make the standard of the cricket even better and raise the tournament?s profile further.

?This was the Bermuda public?s first taste of what an event like this has to offer and the positive thing is that it can only get better if we are able to financially justify continuing with it.

?This event cost something in the region of $3 million to put on, and it is difficult to say at this stage what the final numbers will be.

?We were completely sold out for the final of course, but we would have liked a few more people through the gates during the week.

?One of the changes we are seriously considering is looking to start the event next year on a Saturday and playing no afternoon games during the week, so that as many people as possible can come and watch the cricket when they get off work.

?There is no doubt we need a title sponsor. The Government have been enormously helpful and I cannot speak highly enough of the role of the Premier and Dale Butler in helping us get this on.

?But what we all knew coming into this year was that the pressure was on to put on a good show, because once potential sponsors had a chance to see what we were about, then they might be more inclined to assist us.

?This is not something we can let drift. Within the next six to eight weeks we will sit down with Government to go over the whole picture and then decisions will have to be made.?

?In terms of the use of this North Field, I am just the facilitator. It is not for me to say what should or should not be done with the field. What we have done, I think, by showing Bermuda how the ground might look if it was set up for international cricket, is to get the debate going.

?What I will say is that I think there needs to be a debate because the future of this facility is a crucial issue for the Island. Dialogue is a must, and whether it is cricket designated or a multi-purpose facility will be up to the Government, the trustees and the people of Bermuda.

?The umpire Cyril Mitchley did come up to me a few days ago to say that he absolutely loved the ground and in his opinion it was the best in the Caribbean. So that gives you a sense of what this ground has to offer.

?We just hope we can carry on using it for our purposes, because it is an absolutely magnificent ground for cricket and deserved to be treated as such.?

Kane, meanwhile, was equally unsure as to whether the Classic would or could take place next year, but he was enthused nevertheless by the variety of people who paid money to come and watch the cricket.

Perhaps understandably, however, he also had absolutely no time for the suggestion that the North Field should just be a cricket ground, calling the BCB?s stance on this ?a little precious?.

?I thought the whole tournament was superb and something that all of Bermuda could be very proud of,? he said.

?What I really liked about it was how it attracted such a broad cross-section of the local community. You had both black and white Bermudians, Sri Lankans, South Africans, Australians and West Indians all together enjoying the event which was a truly wonderful sight to see.

?It was obviously helped by the fact that Bermuda got through to the final. Some people said we would have got a big turn out for the final regardless of whether Bermuda was in it or not ? but I am not 100 percent sure about that myself. There are a few things we would like to change if we carry on with it next time, but overall I don?t think we could have asked for a better first year.

?It?s difficult to say right now whether we are going to break even or make a loss ? though if we do break even, finals day will have a lot to do with it because we sold every ticket that was printed.

?Once the television highlights are put together and are broadcast, and once the players have gone back to their respective countries and told others about the Classic, then I think the potential for growth will be considerable.

?I don?t agree at all with the argument that the North Field should be solely reserved for cricket.

?There?s no reason why the North Field cannot be a top class cricket ground as well as being used for other sports as well. That is certainly how things work in other parts of the world, in Australia for example, where plenty of the main cricket grounds have rugby and Aussie Rules played on them as well.

?In terms of the Rugby Classic, there would be no problem playing the games in the football stadium, but the issue there is that there is not the room for all the corporate hospitality space we need and the Rugby Classic simply would not be able to function without the corporate hospitality.

?You cannot possibly justify using the North Field all-year round as a cricket ground because there will be no matches played on it during the winter. The Rugby Classic, for example, is in November and you cannot tell me that it?s not possible to get the field licked into shape for cricket by the time the season starts.

?Cricket is one of the national sports and would obviously get priority up there, but I think it would be a mistake to restrict the number of sports that could use the facilities available.?

NSC Trustees chairman Gerard Bean was singing the same tune as Kane as well, though he was quick to promise the BCB that they would eventually be able to consider the North Field a home ? just not 365 days a year.

?I can assure you that from the Trustees? perspective, we consider the North Field to be primarily a cricket ground,? he said.

?But there is no way we can turn round to other sports who want to use that field and tell them it is only for cricket. We run a National Sports Centre, and we have to weigh up the priorities of all sports.

?The North Field will eventually be almost the home of cricket in Bermuda, once the Centre Core is complete. What I think you need to realise is that the plans for the Centre Core were redrawn to make sure the facilities required for the North Field to be a top-class cricket venue capable of hosting international cricket were in place. The facility will have room for up to 100 media representatives with wireless internet throughout. It will have private dining rooms for the players and officials, the proper dressing rooms will be there ? everything that is needed.

?Since we qualified for the World Cup, it has been at the forefront of our minds that the field should be available as often as possible for the cricketers to use and we have given them our highest priority all along.

?What we are very aware of is that by the time the World Cup finishes, Bermuda is going to be at the bottom of the pole so to speak in the Caribbean region in terms of the cricket facilities at our disposal because all of the grounds in the West Indies are having huge amounts of money invested in them to get them ready.

?So if we do not want to fall behind drastically, we have to get that Centre Core built as soon as possible and we, along with Government, will be making a presentation very shortly about the plans and how we intend to get it built.?