Dear Sir,

I always like to start the New Year off on a positive note and therefore the basic tenor of this letter is intentionally optimistic. This year skipper Clay Smith (one of this Island's all-time cricketing greats) and Bermuda's senior team have the opportunity to do what their predecessors could not - qualify for the World Cup. From the very first ICC Trophy tournament, successive Bermuda teams under captains Gladstone ‘Sad' Brown, Colin Blades, Arnold Manders, Albert Steede and Charlie Marshall have failed to make it to the ‘show piece' of international cricket. I believe that if the BCB provide the squad with a decent coach and sufficient ‘warm-up' games then our chances will be good, even at this stage.

The training squad chosen by the selectors is a good blend of youth and experience. Provided the players are committed to getting in top condition and stay focused there is no reason why we should not be able to qualify this time around.

While I must confess to being disappointed that promising batsman ‘Dion Stovell' has been excluded for disciplinary reasons there are still quite a few good youngsters to choose from such as O.J. Pitcher, Jacobi Robinson and Delyonne Borden.

Herein lies the key to our success, if the youngsters in particular perform to their potential then led by proven senior players like Dwayne Leverock, Glenn Blakeney and of course Clay Bermuda can look forward to participating in the 2007 World Cup.

On a footballing note, I must say I was pleased to learn that Devonshire Cougars prolific goal scorer Raymond Beach is to have football trials in the UK. If he is successful, this will not only bode well for him but encourage other Bermudian footballers looking to play professional soccer in Britain.

As you are aware at the Test level I am big supporter of the West Indies. Quite recently they appointed for the first time in their history a foreign coach in Australian Bennett King.

They will compete in a Triangular one-day tournament in Australia beginning next week and have chosen a pretty good squad of 14. However I fail to see on what grounds the selectors decided to include Bajan Ryan Hinds in the team.

Hinds who has played for the West Indies on a number of occasions has shown himself to be no more than a ‘bits and pieces' player at this level. He can classified as an all-rounder in the domestic game, i.e. bats and bowls spin but in the international matches he has played thus far he has failed to impress.

Further, the team already possesses two players who can fulfil his role. Chris Gayle, who is a certainty to open the innings, is a more than useful spinner in the one-day version of the game, and Marlon Samuels who returns to the side after a long lay off can also do the job. Samuels to my mind is definitely way ahead of Hinds in terms of class.

Further it would have been better for Ryan Hinds to remain in the Caribbean to play in the first class tournament, as a youngster I believe this would have been more beneficial for him. Nonetheless I look forward to following the Windies first performance under Bennett King.

RECMAN