WITH player contracts nearing completion ? or at least that?s what we?ve been led to believe ? Bermuda?s national cricket squad set off for Dubai last night with what should have been a new sense of purpose and determination.

For the first time in this tiny Island?s sporting history, we?re paying our top players to do what they do best.

Simply being elevated to the status of professional won?t make our cricketers better players, but with an $11 million price tag around their necks the burden of expectation will be enormous.

As the new boys on the block and the smallest nation in terms of both size and population ever to qualify for a World Cup, in not just cricket but most likely any team sport, Bermuda will be very much the underdogs in just about every match they play leading up to and during next year?s Caribbean festival.

Yet let nobody be fooled into believing the old adage ?results don?t matter ? it?s all about gaining experience?.

Results do matter.

And when Gus Logie?s men touch down in the Middle East today, regardless of the fact that many of those in his new-look squad will be making their international debut and even the veterans in the team will be lacking experience in terms of competing on the world stage, there has to be a belief among all of those players that they can win.

There can be no repeat of the Namibian debacle last fall when Bermuda competed well before losing against Kenya and then suffered two humiliating wallopings from the host nation.

And there can be no excuses about intimidatory and threatening bowling tactics which, somewhat suspiciously, forced Logie to pull his players off the pitch with defeat staring them in the face.

If we want to play with the big boys, we have to accept that sometimes it?s going to be in a hostile environment where the stakes are much higher than what our players have previously been accustomed to.

Much like Namibia, United Arab Emirates, who Bermuda will play five times in the space of nine days, will be determined to show it should be they and not their guests who should be preparing for next year?s World Cup.

Most likely they?ll be even more intent than Namibia on embarrassing their opponents as it was Bermuda who effectively ended their own World Cup dream with last summer?s ICC Trophy group stage victory in Ireland. Revenge would be awfully sweet.

Conversely, Bermuda have to show that result wasn?t a fluke, that we deserved to win and in turn earned our place in the sport?s greatest showpiece.

It?s incumbent on the team to win at least two of next week?s five matches, hopefully more, not only to prove their worth ? there are still plenty of taxpayers convinced that Government?s $11 million donation could have been better spent elsewhere - but to build confidence ahead of a series of high profile matches planned between now and March, 2007.

Regardless of their inexperience, Bermuda?s players do possess extraordinary ability.

Test opponents apart, on any given day they?re capable of beating all of the ICC member countries, UAE included.

And that?s what they now have to prove, not only to themselves but to a country which has invested so much in their future.CONFLICTING reports over the status of contract negotiations between the BCB and their players will likely have left observers utterly confused during the past week.

ZBM-TV have claimed the players were up in arms, threatening to strike even, if their demands weren?t met.

In reply, the Board and a good number of the players have suggested that report was ?grossly exaggerated?.

What we do know is that the players were concerned, quite naturally, with the way contract talks were progressing and asked for a meeting to discuss those concerns.

But as far as we can gather ? and this newspaper has spoken to a number of national team players, the skipper included, as well as various Board officials ? there is very little dissatisfaction within the ranks. The players have been shown the financial package on offer and are expected to finalise their individual deals on the return from Dubai.

That?s not to say, however, that the ZBM report was completely wrong.

Sometimes it appears that governing bodies are so paranoid about what they perceive to be negative publicity, that they?ll avoid at all costs divulging all of the details on any given issue. They?re selective in what they release.

This issue, as it turns out, wasn?t in any way controversial. It was only natural that the players be concerned about their welfare and the remuneration on offer for the sacrifices they?ll have to make in the lead-up to the World Cup.

Had the public, via the media, been correctly informed on the ongoing talks in the first place, then the current confusion could have been avoided.

Generally this newspaper enjoys an amicable relationship with the BCB, with a free flow of information.

But the problems that can arise when we?re presented with only half the story have been highlighted during the past week.

ZBM, as they are entitled, stand by their story.

This newspaper certainly stands by its version of events.

The public will have to make up their minds who?s right, and who?s wrong.

But their job would be have been made a lot easier had the BCB been up front with all of the relevant information from the very beginning.