The controversial National Sports Centre's (NSC) cricket square received a clean bill of health yesterday from Bermuda coach Gus Logie, who is optimistic it will host a first-class cricket match in the very near future.

A first-class match has not been played at the NSC in nearly four years. But if all goes according to plan this summer could see cricket make a long-awaited return to the facility with efforts underway to bring the pitch up to scratch to host Bermuda's four day Intercontinental Cup match with Scotland in July.

A collaboration involving NSC groundstaff, the Ministry of Sport, Bermuda Cricket Board (BCB) and veteran groundsmen Sheridan Raynor, Sidney (Shot) Carlington and Ronald Greenidge has seen minor upgrades applied to the pitch with national coach Logie impressed with the progress made so far.

"I must commend the people who have been working on the pitch and I'm certain and trust that everything will work out," said the former West Indies Test player.

As promised, the BCB have scheduled a series of matches at the NSC over the next few weeks in the hope of convincing the International Cricket Council (ICC) the Island is capable of hosting tournaments such as the Intercontinental Cup.

Last Thursday night saw a Dwayne (Sluggo) Leverock XI beat 2007 Premier Division champions Social Club in a 25 over contest at the NSC while the latter was scheduled to meet Police last night at the same venue.

Logie said: "Unfortunately at the moment we can only play limited overs cricket on it but we are doing the best we can. It's an ongoing process for the pitch and we want to see how it will play over four days of cricket.

"The bounce is quite consistent with a bit of movement and turn for the spinners and we haven't seen any deterioration in the pitch at this point in time which augurs well.

"There were foot marks visible but nothing to worry about under normal circumstances and so far we are quite pleased and hopefully it will continue to play good over the next four days."

Logie said the BCB plan to have an independent pitch consultant review video footage of matches played at the NSC prior to the arrival of an ICC expert who will conduct further inspections of the venue's cricket pitch, described a few years ago by leading turf expert Andy Aitkinson as more "suitable for growing carrots".

On a recent visit to the Island ICC High Performance manager Richard Done hinted that it might not be long before Bermuda resumes hosting first-class matches at the NSC.

"Things are now looking as if the wicket is heading in the right direction," former Aussie cricketer Done said.