of the Heinz Bermuda Open Squash Championship $18,000 purse next year, revealed tournament chairman Dave Protheroe yesterday.

The action may be taken so that Bermuda will not only be able to attract more top-ranked players to the Island, but also so that the regulars who have been involved during the past few years will be persuaded to return.

Protheroe was responding to remarks made by losing finalist, Canadian Gary Waite, who intimated that a purse of around $25,000 will have to be offered if Bermuda wished to increase the talent of overseas players.

"This is true and I would think that the aim for us will be to try and increase it in the region of $25-30,000 for that reason,'' he said.

"We now have a full year to work towards this. The Bermuda General Agency and the Department of Tourism were our two main sponsors and if we can expand our sponsorship in the direction of exempt companies it may indeed be possible to increase the purse,'' he added.

Waite's remarks about the purse were based on questions about himself and top seed Brett Martin meeting in the finals once again this year. The second seed Waite last met his opponent in the final last year and the two were heavy favourites to meet once again this year.

With Martin having a world ranking of four and Waite 12 it was unlikely any of the lower ranked players would be able to offer them much of a challenge...and this proved to be the case even though Waite was fully extended by Englishman Damien Walker in the first round.

"Bermuda is not going to get many high-ranked players unless they put up more money. I would think Brett comes here all the way from Australia because he loves the Island, not for the tournament alone,'' said Waite. The Canadian explained that the world ranking is based on the dollars they earned from tournaments and therefore most of the top players were lured to the much larger tournaments and he noted that more tournaments with large purses are being added to the circuit.

In fact he suggested that he would not be surprise if Bermuda would have to increase the local purse to $25,000 alone just to be able to continue to attract the players they have gotten here in the past.

"If the purse is increased to $25,000 and I am ranked number two again then I will probably be back next year,'' said Waite who will shortly play in the Leekes Classic in Wales and also a tournament later in Brazil with a purse of $140,000.

Protheroe, who was not at all surprised by the views expressed by Waite, is familiar with the emphasis that the foreign players placed on the size of the purse at tournaments.

"The points system used in ranking the players is assessed on the dollar value of the tournament. We have no way of raising something like $60-70,000 or more that is being offered by the bigger countries simply because the market here is just not suitable,'' said Protheroe.

"For us to get the standard of play that we do have in our little tournament is something I think no other tournament can accomplish. It's just fortunate that those players who we do attract love the island and how we treat them.'' Protheroe and official Roger Sherratt agreed that this year's tournament was one still one of their best, pointing out that it was quite competitive from the outset.

"From what we have brought here there have been great games that have kept the spectators quite interested. The players are young and working hard to improve their ranking,'' said Protheroe.

"This year was the best competitive-wise with play being competitive from the very first round. An example was when Damien Walker played Waite in the first round and the Englishman took a two-game edge and could have easily won, only to see Waite recover and win 3-2 in a very tight match.'' Sherratt agreed and added: "For such a small country, Bermuda does well to offer the size purse it does. I don't know if increasing the purse would increase the interest of the spectators, which is already at a high.'' BRETT MARTIN -- A repeat Bermuda Open visitor because "he likes the island.''