FOR a cricket team as internationally inexperienced as Bermuda, losing is all part of the learning process. Thrashings such as those inflicted by Namibia last week have to be almost expected and accepted from time to time.

Yet that said, there were some disturbing aspects to the manner in which Gus Logie's men twice capitulated to a far from full-strength host team.

If the players give 100 percent and play to the best of their ability, then there can be no cause for complaint.

But it seems clear that wasn't the case.

Skipper Clay Smith, absent for both of those matches, admitted as much.

His players, he conceded, have difficulty in meeting the challenges of a so-called 'friendly' match when, in effect, there's nothing at stake.

We saw that in Ireland earlier this year. Once qualification for the World Cup was ensured, there was a significant dip in the level performance, against both the Scots and the Canadians.

Conditions in Windhoek last week might have been difficult, circumstances acrimonious and fatigue a factor given the long flight and arduous three-day game against the Kenyans.

But at this level of the game, such excuses don't wash.

In the build-up and during the World Cup in little over a year's time, it's not going to get any easier.

Every time the players pull on a Bermuda jersey they're playing for not only their own pride but that of a nation. They've received enormous support since returning from Ireland and in many ways they've repaid it with gritty and gutsy performances in the matches that mattered. But there's no room for complacency.

The manner of those defeats in Namibia perhaps magnified areas of their game which, against Test teams, will be even more cruelly exposed.

On more than one occasion, the Namibian players and staff commented on what they perceived to be the Bermuda team's lack of fitness.

Such comments could have been simply confrontational, and fitness is only relative to each individual sport. But there's no doubt in international cricket these days, players have to demonstrate far more agility and endurance than might have been the case several years ago.

If fitness is a concern, then it can be addressed in the weeks to come. More worrying for Logie, however, will have been the continued lack of runs at the top of the order.

With the arrival last night of Bermuda-born county player David Hemp, who has pledged his future to the team, he may have found a partial solution.

Yet it remains to be seen how Hemp will be accepted into the fold.

As ridiculous as it may sound, we've already received phone calls at about 'this Johnny come Lately jumping on the bandwagon when all the hard work's already been done'.

Why, they asked, didn't Hemp want to be part of the set-up before and during the World Cup qualifying matches.

The answer to that may be that, as a professional player with Glamorgan, his career had to take priority.

Now in the twilight of that career he sees an opportunity not only for himself but an opportunity to help Bermuda.

And we can only hope the xenophobia that has sometimes blighted local sport in the past won't raise its ugly head again.

Critics shouldn't need reminding that almost every Test team around the world and many of the ICC associate members ? USA, Canada and UAE come immediately to mind ? have drafted in players who haven't been resident in that country but have qualified through other means.

Bermuda can be no different.

As well as the team have played this summer, those crushing defeats in Namibia last week showed that Bermuda need all the help they can get.

Hopefully, David Hemp will be welcomed with open arms. If he can help existing players to become better players, we all win.