Cricket on our tiny little Island has suffered for decades because of an absence of three Es: expertise, experience and exposure.

Against a backdrop of limited finances and an amateurish infrastructure, talented players such as Wendell Smith, Albert Steede and Charlie Marshall only rarely ventured abroad to expand their cricketing horizons.

Marshall and Steede's careers in particular provide examples, arguably without equal, of what playing the majority of your cricket in such a limited environment can do to your chances of success on the international stage.

Widely regarded as two of the finest batsman the Island has produced in the last 50 years they have made a hobby out of destroying average club attacks with their unrelenting savagery at the crease.

But you only have to glance at their ICC Trophy records to see that neither of them did their talent justice.

In 26 matches, Marshall averaged only 28.23 with a highest score of 67 while Steede managed a similarly disappointing 25.23 in 27 matches, with a best effort of 76.

In an interview early last summer, Steede spoke candidly of his regret at not going away more regularly in his formative years and admitted that his development as a batsman was hampered as a result.

How on earth the cricketing authorities ever expected Bermuda to triumph at the various international tournaments they were sent to on the back of frequently pitiful preparation is a difficult question to answer. It was a bit like training a swimmer to be an Olympic champion but never letting them out of the paddling pool. Indeed, in the circumstances it was remarkable that the 1979 and 1982 ICC Trophy teams came within a whisker of the promised land.

But with World Cup qualification secured and $11 million plus in the kitty, a new dawn has broken and the BCB are clearly obligated to ensure that local cricket does not stagnate in the comfort zone.

On January 16, two more players on the fringes of the national team will depart for a winter overseas at a highly reputable cricket centre.

St. David's seamer George O'Brien Jr. and Southampton Rangers' wicketkeeper-batsman Kwame Tucker will spend three months in Brisbane, Australia, at an international cricket academy. They form part of an ever-expanding list of players who have benefited from extended stints playing cricket on foreign fields.

The likes of Jim West, Azeem Pitcher, Jekon Edness, Stephen Outerbridge, Jacobi Robinson, OJ Pitcher and Delyone Borden will all have returned from their various trips with their skills improved, as well as their knowledge of what it takes to make it in the big leagues.

Whether or not they deliver is down to them.

But at least we have now reached a point where the best young Bermudians are being given every opportunity to uncork what talent is bottled up inside them.