Clay Smith believes Island cricket chiefs missed the boat by not making him national captain last year when they knew he was the only man for the job.

The St. David's player-coach surprisingly pulled out of the Island's Americas Cup squad just as the Bermuda Cricket Board of Control were about to make the decision on their lead man.

Having earlier put his name forward for the captain's job, Smith cited family and job commitments for his last-minute withdrawal.

However, the top batsman said such issues would not have forced his hand if the BCBC had made the appointment a matter of urgency.

Instead, the Board waited until yesterday, a month before the tournament in Argentina, to name their man, bringing former national captain Charlie Marshall out of retirement to take the helm.

"What puzzles me is that they have known since October that they had to select a skipper and in reality they had only three people, myself, Albert Steede and Janeiro Tucker to chose from,'' said Smith last night.

"Had they come to me in December and said `Listen, Clay you are going to be skipper for the upcoming tour', mentally, I would have prepared myself and there would have been nothing, job opportunities or whatever, that would have persuaded me to turn down the post.

"But with such a late notice as I had this time I just had to do what was best for my family.''

Smith claimed the BCBC were well aware that neither Steede - the only other "quality" captain on the Island bar himself - nor Tucker were interested in the position.

"The Board has known for a while that they (Steede and Tucker) didn't want the job and basically that left myself for the spot, yet they only met with me last Thursday to officially discuss the matter,'' he said.

Ironically, Smith's decision to miss out on some international cricket means he will be available to play soccer for North Village in the FA Cup final - should they dispose of St. George's in this weekend's final four.

However, any suggestion that he was putting anything other than his family and his career before bat and ball was firmly dismissed.

"I'm leaving because of the opportunity that a new job offers, nothing more than that,'' he said.

Further suggestions that he left Thursday's meeting in a less than enthusiastic mood were also denied.

"Yes, I did go for an interview with the Board on Thursday and it was positive," he said, before adding. "In fact it had it's negatives and positive parts. But that didn't persuade me in any way in making my final decision to withdraw from the squad.

"On Saturday morning I received a telephone call pertaining to a job opportunity starting on March 1 and basically I thought it would be unethical at such a late period to ask for time off right away because the job, which is just temporary at the moment, can open bigger avenues for me as far as my employment future is concerned.

"Therefore I handed in my letter of resignation from the squad on Monday morning. I didn't do it because I sensed a negative response during my meeting.''

Smith said noone could question his national pride, saying he had put cricket at the forefront of his life on many occasions and had even missed his first wedding anniversary to go on tour.

"However, there comes a time when there are more things to life than cricket and at this stage I have to sort out my future and put my family ahead of cricket," he said. "I would say this, in the past I have gone abroad and actually lost money by representing my country, going when my employers are not going to pay me and then having the Board make allowances that cover only half of my pay at the time. That's not only me being away from my family but losing money at the same time."

Smith admitted to being surprised the board appointed veteran Marshall, saying he felt a wiser move would have been to have given the role to someone already involved with the training squad.

With Tucker "just learning his trade" and Steede not wanting the job, he said he would have supported the, some would say radical, step of giving the position to Stephen Outerbridge, captain of last year's Under-19 side.

He said he believed that would have been a sound decision, especially if Steede was willing to accept the role of vice-captain.

Of the squad itself, which has a large emphasis on youth, Smith said he thought the selectors had done a good job - albeit with one exception.

"It's a good one," he said. "However, I am disappointed that young Delwyon Borden was not chosen as he has been one of the most consistent players at training.''