Dear Sir,

It is no secret that our local sportsmen suffer from a lack of exposure to international competition. I would therefore like to say how pleased I was to learn that BFA president Larry Mussenden and his dynamic young executive are taking steps to reintroduce incoming football tours to the Island over the Christmas period.

I can recall during my high school days watching Surinam and other foreign teams playing against our senior national squad on 'the carpet'.

The matches were always well attended and my classmates and I would discuss the games long after they were over.

When we won every Bermudian could be seen walking with a spring in his step the next day and when we lost there was no shame because our players always gave a good account of themselves.

I believe this move will not only assist in taking our players to the next level but also increase interest in the local game itself.

The Bermuda Cricket Board of Control would do well to follow suit. In my last letter to Sports Mailbox I suggested we bring in a competitive international side to play our senior national team every year at the end of our season in a best two out of three series.

The benefits are obvious. First of all it would give the players, the fans and the officials something to look forward to at the end of the season.

At present the highlight of the local cricket calendar is Cup Match and that is played well before the season ends, once the classic is over interest in domestic cricket quickly diminishes, an international series would act to keep enthusiasm for the sport alive for the entire duration of the season.

Further every player playing in league competition would have something to aim for. If he plays well enough throughout the season he could earn the honour of representing his country against foreign opposition in front of his home crowd. Such a competition would also provide our local umpires with much needed experience because they would be afforded the opportunity of officiating in international matches annually.

It would ensure that current national coach Mark Harper has 'a brief', as he would have the task of preparing our senior national players for this competition.

His contribution to the development of our cricket could be measured in part on the performances of the national squad in these matches over the duration of his contract.

One need only look at the phenomenal success of the annual Rugby Classic to get an idea of what could be achieved. The Rugby Classic brings numerous teams from as far away as South Africa, Australia and New Zealand to play in their competition; I am suggesting that we bring in one team to play our national cricket squad.

Rather than work at cross-purposes I would love to see the BCBC and the Testimonial Committee come together to stage the event. The testimonial committee could organise the matches; in fact they could choose a team made up of local players, i.e. 'the Testimonial XL' to play the foreign side in the opening match, with the remainder of the games played against the Bermuda senior national squad.

Former players could be honoured prior to the start of play or during the luncheon interval. They could also choose the Man of the Match and toss the coin.

This would I believe go a long way to getting former players involved with today's cricketers, a criticism often levelled at them in local sporting circles.

In a recent newspaper interview with Colin Zuill BCBC president Reggie Pearman confirmed that Bermuda's national squad faced a lengthy lay-off from international cricket. This I fear will only serve to put our cricket even further behind the proverbial 'eight-ball'.

Canada defeated West Indies A two games to one in Toronto a few weeks ago and at present are competing in the Red Stripe Bowl with considerable success, they ran a Guyana team that included Sarwan, Hooper and Chanderpaul close and actually defeated Antigua and Barbuda.

It is imperative that the BCBC provide regular international competition for our team, without it we will continue to regress, earlier this year it was the Cayman Islands who embarrassed us who next Argentina?

I often wonder what Alma 'Champ' Hunt; a key player in the founding of the ICC Trophy tournament would think if he saw how far we have fallen off the pace.

Finally, it is a shame that the our only representatives at the World Cup in South Africa next year will be BCBC officials not the Bermuda national team.

I would like to encourage Reggie Pearman and the BCBC as well as Custerfield Crockwell and the Testimonial Committee to seriously consider coming together to stage such an event; it would only serve to benefit our cricket.

RECMAN

Dear Sir,

Thank you for Dexter Smith's letter in Sports Mailbox and the assistance it provided to me and some of my friends in the friendly and passionate debates that we have been having since the MVP has been awarded.

It has been a blessing in disguise as the Cup Match teasings, rantings and ravings normally die down on the Friday night after the game is over. This controversy has allowed us to keep our 2002 Cup Match memories alive a little longer.

I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Smith (Dexter), and as a lifetime Somerset supporter, am embarrassed by the other Mr. Smith (Colin). Not a single player added a contribution to his team that was more valuable than the other other Mr. Smith (Travis).

In the absence of his wickets, I would like to believe that Somerset would still be batting. The Somerset selectors can pat themselves on the back for Somerset's lack of an MVP as they chose a well-rounded team whose sum was greater than the value of its individual parts.

Having won the greater prize (a Cup Match victory), I believe that Somerset's president had the opportunity to tip his cap and to be very magnanimous and offer nothing but congratulations to Travis. Fortunately, in the absence of this, Mr. Dennis Pilgrim showed how truly valuable he is to me as a Somerset fan - by being gracious in defeat.

LIFETIME SOMERSET SUPPORTER