JUDGING from the contradictory comments made by two of our senior cricket officials this week, one could assume the frustrations of recent failures are beginning to take a firm grip.

First there was chairman of national team selectors Arnold Manders offering a catalogue of excuses as to why Bermuda performed so dismally in the United Arab Emirates last month and urging the public to be patient.

And then we had coach Gus Logie berating anyone who dared suggest that his World-Cup bound team wouldn?t be a match for Jamaica when the two sides clash in the Stanford 20/20 tournament later this year.

Logie made the point that a draw against less formidable sides such as Montserrat or Martinique is exactly what the team didn?t need. Instead, taking on a star-studded Jamaica side, full of players with both Test and One-Day International experience, provided another opportunity for Bermuda to prove that they belong in such company.

Fighting talk indeed.

But defiance or denial?

For all of Manders? excuses ? lack of preparation, playing out of season, injuries, unfamiliar territory etc. ? the fact still remains that our newly-installed professionals haven?t won a one-day match since qualifying for the World Cup last July.

And what makes matters worse is the manner in which we?ve been defeated ? successive thumping losses to the likes of Scotland, Ireland, Namibia and UAE, only two of whom will be joining Bermuda in the Caribbean spectacular in just over a year?s time.

And please, no comments about negative reporting. It?s fact. It?s simple reality.

We can argue all day about the whys and wherefores of such a run of results, and admittedly as the new boys on the block, Bermuda have to be given time to adjust and adapt to what is essentially a whole new ball game.

But let?s not pretend the situation couldn?t be better.

Logie might, in his own words, be ?sick and tired? of people questioning whether his players are good enough to compete at this level, but given what has transpired in the last eight months, the questions are valid.

Bermuda have invested heavily in his team and while everyone realises we?ll be huge underdogs to win any of our matches at the World Cup, we all want the side to be, at the very least, competitive.

Sadly in our last seven matches there have been no signs whatsoever of the fierce, competitive spirit which got the team into this position in the first place.

That?s what the public want to see. They don?t want to hear more excuses.

When the players travel to Trinidad early next month and to the Channel Islands and England in late May, it matters not that we win or lose.

What matters is that we show signs of improvement, that lessons have been learned from previous failures, and the players are prepared to knuckle down.

Perhaps then the rest of the country will share Logie?s optimism.

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STILL on cricket, and in particular Logie, it takes a brave man to suggest that Cup Match should be watered down in the interests of the national team.

But the national coach?s suggestion this week that his key seam bowlers be spared from the summer classic with an important tour of Canada immediately following and the World Cup on the horizon, is spot-on.

For too long Bermuda?s players have put club before country.

Despite Cup Match?s historical importance, this year, in particular, the country has to come first. If Logie believes his players will perform better in Toronto having been spared an arduous two days on the Somerset pitch, then his recommendation should be rubber-stamped ? in the face of expected protestations from those running the big match.

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IN less than two weeks? time, Bermuda will take one of its biggest ever squads to the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne ? 26 athletes representing eight different sports.

Much like the cricketers, they?ll be huge underdogs ? a place on the podium highly unlikely for any of them.

Yet the size of the contingent says an awful lot about the standards attained in so many sports in a country of just 60,000 people.

There?s not another nation in the Commonwealth that comes anywhere close to matching Bermuda?s ?Games athlete per capita? ratio.

Medals or not, from that perspective we already have an awful lot to be proud of.