THREE matches, three defeats.

The trials and tribulations of Bermuda?s World Cup-bound cricket squad during this week?s friendly tour of United Arab Emirates has hardly made pleasant reading.

While spirits will have been slightly lifted by yesterday?s performance when Gus Logie?s men at least posted a respectable score ? the first time this week the batsmen had mustered more than 200 ? unfortunately the end result was the same.

Bermuda Cricket Board, the coach, management and players will no doubt be quick to point out that this Middle Eastern tour is all part of the learning curve ? a chance to blood new players, experiment with the batting order and generally determine in which areas of the game we need to improve.

With nothing at stake other than pride ? it isn?t a tournament and there are no trophies to be won ? that might seem a reasonable argument.

Yet as pointed out in this column last week, results do matter ? in cricket and in any international sport.

Confidence is a key ingredient for any successful team. And nothing builds confidence more than repetitive victories ? just ask the Australians.

By the same token, repetitive defeats can destroy confidence, cause players to question their own ability and create a rut from which, with every loss, it becomes more difficult to dig a path out ? just ask the West Indies.

It is, of course, still early days.

Thanks to Government?s $11 million injection into local cricket, a succession of both incoming and outgoing tours have been lined up over the next year during which Bermuda?s fortunes could quickly change.

But they will do so only if every player who pulls on a Bermuda shirt realises that while there?s a collective responsibility for the team to perform well, the onus is on each individual to stand up and be counted.

From the results we?ve seen in the last five matches ? two against Namibia and now three against UAE ? there?s been little evidence of some our better players pulling their weight when it really mattered.

Janeiro Tucker apart, there have been a succession of capitulations from players who have the ability to perform at international level but seemingly not the mental toughness.

Whenever the top of the batting order has failed to deliver ? and that?s in just about every match we?ve played (yesterday being a rare exception), the rest of the order has collapsed like a pack of cards.

Without underestimating the quality of the opposition, it should be pointed out that two of the UAE select sides fielded this week contained not a single player who represented the country at the ICC Trophy last summer, albeit those included were very capable expatriates, most of Pakistani origin with a strong cricketing background.

Yet it would appear some our players haven?t shown the same determination and resolve which culminated in a crucial victory over the ?Arabs? in Ireland just eight months ago which effectively booked our ticket to the World Cup.

There?s time for that to change over the next two days when Bermuda play their final tour matches, hopefully managing to salvage something from what has so far proved a disappointing series.

But no matter what the outcome of those games, the message is already loud and clear ? between now and next year?s Caribbean extravaganza, to which thousands of Bermudians are expected to travel, there?s an awful lot of hard work required if we?re to compete on the biggest stage of all with a degree of respectability.

NO doubt the concept of a 20/20 World Cricket Classic, the inaugural edition of which is to be staged in Bermuda in April, run along similar lines to that of the World Rugby Classic, is an interesting one with potential for spectacular success.

But to be brutally honest, the so-called ?100 big names? signed up for the National Sports Centre tournament do little to capture the imagination.

Australian Ian Healy was a superb player in his day as was West Indian Joel Garner. And several other former Test players will arrive with impressive credentials.

But without the likes of Viv Richards, Ian Botham, Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Alan Border, Sunil Gavaskar, Richard Hadlee, the Chappell brothers, to name but a few of the game?s leading lights, one wonders just how successful the event will be.

The games have the potential to be highly entertaining and competitive, but when it comes to players of the past, the public want to see the very best ? and on paper at least, that doesn?t seem to be what we?re getting this time around.