Winning the Americas Championship shows the national team?s making progress, but coach Gus Logie is adamant something must be done about the state of the local game if Bermuda is to continue developing as a cricketing nation.

While Irving Romaine?s men were in Canada, league cricket was thrown into chaos by a severe umpire shortage which resulted in the cancellation of several crucial games, while on Sunday two clubs ? St. David?s and Police ? were unable to raise a side for their Knockout Cup clashes.

Meanwhile, the game between Somerset and Bailey?s Bay was blighted by appalling player behaviour ? including one batsman smashing the stumps out of the ground after being given out.

An umpire even reportedly walked off the field in the game between Cleveland and Willow Cuts because of the repeated abuse he was receiving from both players and spectators over a disputed decision.

While he was too busy with his national team commitments to follow these latest incidents that closely, Logie was still prepared to agree that things are not as they should be.

?People talk about Bermuda cricket moving forward, and I think at a national team level we are certainly making progress,? Logie said yesterday.

?But on the whole local cricket is a long way behind where it needs to be. I?ve talked about this before ? what is required is for everybody involved in Bermuda cricket to work together to create a system which breeds excellence and passion for the game, and at the moment I do not think we have that.

?There needs to be pretty drastic improvements on all fronts ? in attitudes, in commitment and particularly in the quality of the grounds we play on which in most cases are not up to scratch.?

Aside from this, Logie is still very concerned about the insular mentality prevalent in domestic cricket, where many supporters and some younger players view playing in Cup Match or the County games as more of an achievement than representing the country.

The Trinidadian is hopeful, however, that continued success at national team level ? coupled with the storm of publicity that inevitably follows ? will help break down what he feels are destructive attitudes.

?Young cricketers should want to play for the national team above everything else,? he said.

?I?m not saying that the Counties and Cup Match are not important as well, but in Bermuda I honestly feel that there are too many people who feel they are more important than playing for Bermuda, which to me does not make any sense.

?Winning tournaments like the Americas Championship is not just good for the confidence of the team, but it might also help to persuade younger players to buy into the national team programme and to understand that there is no greater honour than being picked to represent your country.?

Logie is not the first national sport?s coach to bemoan the lack of on-Island resources and the comparatively low quality of play.

Kyle Lightbourne has said repeatedly that in an ideal world he would have all his national team footballers playing abroad on a full-time basis because the local leagues are simply not capable of producing the players of the quality he needs to take the team forward.

?I agree with that to a certain extent and I think we?ve done a few things to help improve the situation,? Logie said.

?For the past few years we have been sending players to a winter training camp in South Africa as well as to an academy in Australia because the facilities here, particularly in the winter, do not lend themselves to competing at the highest level.

?I do think it is important for as many players as possible to be exposed to that kind of environment, but it?s also important that they come back have learned from the experience and so that other players can see what benefits they have derived from it.

?Certainly attitudes have to change if we are going to see some improvements across the board and that is one way of trying to achieve this.?