The domestic cricket season is going to last a little longer than usual this year.

Bermuda Cricket Board have announced plans to stage a series of All-Star matches next month, with the top available players on the Island invited to take part in two 50-over games, and four Twenty20 matches.

Played over the weekends of 2-3 and 9-10 of October, the matches will serve several purposes, including giving Bermuda head coach David Moore the chance to identify players who can be part of the Under-19 and senior team set-up.

Attendance will be compulsory for all current national team and Under-19 squad members, while any player who harbours ambitions of representing Bermuda will also have to attend unless they have a good reason for not doing so.

The teams will be picked on Tuesday, ahead of the first game next Saturday.

With next Sunday's game due to coincide with the start of football's domestic league season, it means that for some of the younger players, like PHC's Kamau Leverock, and Cleveland's Damali Bell, the time to make a choice between the Island's two national sports will have finally arrived.

"I don't mind them playing football, as long as cricket is their top priority," said Moore. "Those players that want to play cricket for Bermuda have to commit to everything we ask of them. I don't see that you can be successful if you're not fully committed, and that's the challenge because if we do get back to Division One, we'll be playing a lot of cricket."

Ultimately then the purpose of the October matches, and the commitment that Moore will require of his players this winter, is to improve the standard of the domestic game in Bermuda so that the Island becomes one of the 'have' Associate nations, rather than one of the 'have nots'.

Eventually it is expected that the All-Star matches will transform into an elite league which will form part of the regualr season schedule.

Associate countries such as Ireland, Scotland, and Namibia, all have an extra tier of cricket that fills the gap between the domestic and international stage. Bermuda doesn't, and as such, the players have consistently been found wanting at a higher level.

"Every time we go into an international competition, the gap between our domestic cricket and international cricket, the gap is just so big, we are constantly starting again," he said. "We don't get that consistent competition that allows an easy transition between the two."

That is something that needs to be resolved sooner rather than later, especially with the Division Two qualifiers to come in April. Unfortunately the high cost of overseas tours largely prohibits going abroad to find better competition, and so bringing the best players on the Island together to play each other is the next best thing.

"I don't believe our natural ability is lacking," said Moore, "we just need to be playing very good, consistent cricket. We've just got to work with what we've got, but knowing that if we do the right thing the rewards for us will be pretty good.

"We have to accept reality. I don't waste any of my valuable emotion or energy, or sleep on wishing that we had more more money. What we've got, is what we've got, so we have to be as efficient as we possibly can be with the money that we have got to spend."

Ideally Moore would like to have a Bermuda team playing in a regional 50-over competition, such as the one that the West Indies HPC team, who Bermuda played on the recent tour to Canada, will be involved in next month in Jamaica.

The HPC team will play against the likes of Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago and Guyana in the competition, while closer to Bermuda in the cricketing ladder, Namibia play in Zimbabwe's domestic Twenty20 competition and against South African provinces in a regional league.

"I just think that we have got to play better cricket, we have got to show to the West Indies that we have the ability to match it with their teams," said Moore. "Because obviously it's a business for them, they run games to sell TV rights and put bums on seats, and we've got to be able to show that we can get in there and mix it with them.

"And unfortunately, all the way back to the Stanford 20/20 stuff, our reputation . . . we've got a bit of stuff to undo I would have thought. They're not going to include us out of the goodness of their hearts, they'll do it because the team was worth playing, and unfortunately we are still making those errors that don't allow us to compete."

The All-Star matches, and anything else that may follow are the first step on that journey.