governing body is not prepared to accept random drug testing for players.

That was the suggestion from Brenton Roberts, Director of Youth and Sports, as Government continues to play hardball with the sports' governing body in Bermuda.

On Monday the finale to the Bermuda Amateur Softball Association's season was thrown into chaos when players found themselves locked out of Bernard Park.

Government say the ban, which came about after talks with the Bermuda Council for Drug-Free Sport, will stay in force until such time BASA agrees to a policy adopted by the vast majority of the Island's sporting bodies.

Roberts said: "We have recognised them as the governing body of softball in Bermuda and have done so for more than 30 years.

"If their intention is to go their own way they might have to consider, or perhaps should consider, the role they play as a sports association.

"If they are a sports association and if the national sports association bodies of Bermuda have said `we want a drug policy and this is what we want' then they have two things to consider -- either they join in or they exempt themselves from it and disband as an organisation.'' Roberts said Government was prepared to go further than just preventing the use of facilities, but said he hoped it would not come to that.

"I would not want to play out our full hand at this particular time,'' he said, adding, "We have taken the position that the softball facilities are not available to anybody who is not a supporter of the drug-free sport initiative.'' Roberts said the ball was now squarely in BASA's court over what happened next. "I read in the press they are having meetings in the next two weeks, they have called a special general meeting,'' he said.

"If that is accurate I would hope that the persons who enjoy the sport of softball, the persons who are supportive of ridding drugs from our society and our community, are prepared to play their part, just like those people in the workplace are playing theirs and those in other facets of community life are playing theirs.'' In a statement to The Royal Gazette , BASA said it supported drug testing in and out of competition, but only "for those athletes who would be in any training squad which represents Bermuda either locally or abroad''.

It said that, through its affiliation with the International Softball Federation, it was party to that body's drug testing policies.

"In fact in August of this year BASA sent a women's national squad away to compete in a tournament,'' the committee stated. "Without any prompting from the Bermuda Council for Drug-Free Sports, we voluntarily submitted the names of each member of the training squad for mandatory drug testing.

"The entire squad was tested and indeed, they all passed.'' But the organisation, while saying it is untrue to say it is not supportive of drugfree sport, says it does not believe "recreational athletes'' should be subjected to testing and is a stance from which they have "never waivered''.