A high profile cricketing spectacle at the National Sports Centre has once again been overshadowed by a below par wicket.

In spite of assurances from NSC trustees that the controversial square would be up to scratch for this high profile tour, the might of Barbados and the Windies could only cobble together a total of 256 runs last night with a succession of famously explosive batsman undone by a painfully slow pitch.

Speaking to The Royal Gazette last night, West Indies manager Tony Howard said that the dusty strip was “not conducive to one day cricket” while many who watched the proceedings - cricket officials and umpires included - were privately scathing in their criticism of a sluggish surface which offered lavish turn and bounce from the very start of the match.

“It was a very challenging surface,” Howard conceded.

“For a one day game, the amount of turn and bounce the pitch offered was not really appropriate while it was also very two paced and hard to play shots on. In those circumstances, posting large totals was always going to be difficult.”

This is not the first time the relatively new square at the NSC has been the subject of intense scrutiny.

As far back as the visit of Lloyd's Cricket Club to the Island in June, concerns were widespread that the pitch was not capable of holding together through an entire day's play.

And during the Americas Championship in the same month, one international captain was moved to comment that the surface “was totally inappropriate for international competition”.

Nobody from the Bermuda Cricket Board was prepared to make any comment on the issue last night, although it goes without saying that they will be disappointed that the assurances given to them by NSC officials before the tour have not been realised.

It is understood that NSC head curator Trevor Madeiros, along with Bermuda's most experienced groundsman Sheridan Raynor, are to prepare two wickets for Bermuda's day/night clash with the West Indies tomorrow afternoon and will experiment with leaving significantly more grass on one of the strips in an effort to hold the pitch together and to stop the notoriously fragile Bermuda soil from rapidly disintegrating into dust once again.