On the surface, women's hockey in Bermuda appeared to be heading in the right direction.

A successful Pan Am Cup off the pitch, if not on it, drew praise from all that attended. The team were well beaten, but there was, apparently, reason to be optimistic for the future.

The event was well organised, the facilities first class, and Bermuda, as always, made the visiting teams feel very welcome.

At the end of the tournament the women's team had jumped 22 places in the world rankings, the federation had the support of Leandro Negre, the newly-elected president of the International Hockey Federation, and were ready to take the next step in their development.

And then president Mark Mello launched an extraordinary attack on coach Gareth Tavares and the landscape changed completely. Accusations where thrown back and forth, with Mello accusing the coaches of alienating the players, and questioning their motives for doing the job in the first place.

An e-mail was sent by Laura West-Burt demanding the president's resignation, and he in return published a lengthy e-mail justifying his position.

The argument exposed a rift that had been bubbling along under a fragile exterior. So, far from being headed in the right direction, hockey appears a sport in turmoil, with a few uneasy alliances holding it together against a backdrop of petty political squabbles, player cliques, and salacious accusations that would make a Hollywood reporter cringe.

Rumours abound of a culture of drinking that inhabits the sport, of coaches past and present picking their favourites over the best, of people coming to power by nefarious means and of national players splitting along club lines at the first sign of trouble.

According to various current and former players, members and spectators, two clubs in particular have issues, Ravens and Swifts. And it can be no coincidence that the coach of one is also a former national coach with close links to Mello.

In recent weeks the fragile outer shell that kept it all out of the public eye has cracked, exposing the true extent of the problems in the sport, and it is anybody's guess what it will take to fix them.

In the aftermath the president has remained unrepentant, insisting that his attack on the coaches was taken out of context, and was part of a much wider view of what exactly is wrong with hockey in Bermuda. However, much like you know you are about to be insulted when someone begins a sentence 'with the greatest respect', Mello's insistance that "I'm not slagging them off" cannot mask what followed.

And his e-mail to the members in which he attempted to explain his comments appear to have only made things worse. In it Mello calls for a return to grass roots, and lays the blame for the failure on the adminstrators, coaches, members and cultural differences which he claims led to some players feeling aliented by Tavares and another coach, Andrew Travis.

"We have a serious challenge," said Mello to members. "The 2005 under-21s should have formed the basis of a senior national team, yet only one player out of 18 is on the senior squad three years later. This is a systematic failure on the part of the organisation . . .

". . . The under-21s are feeling alienated and thus (we had) the challenges that we had in recruiting them to play on this team. I attempted to explain that part of the issue relates to 'cultural differences' between the mentality of Bermuda athletes versus South Africans and New Zealanders (i.e. the nationality of our coaches)."

It is telling, however, that when he spoke to members, using a well known website to do so, he steered clear from blaming, criticising, or in anyway disparaging any of the players who refused to play in the tournament. Instead he listed the growth of women's football on the Island as something that took players away, and again accused the coaches of alienating the players.

The closest he comes to blaming them is in the last paragraph where he said: "We all have to be accountable for the role we each played: from the coaches, to the executives, to the members."

According to several members the e-mail 'has not gone down well in the federation'.

It should be pointed out, however, that Mello has made some good points, including his desire to employ a full-time coach, implement a coherent four-year plan, and his belief that there was a need to energise the youth programme, all of these are admirable ideals. But he has tempered their effect by making some not so sensible assertions alongside them.

A coherent four-year plan, assuming there wasn't one before, can only be good for hockey. A clear idea of targets and progression gives everyone a structure which they can judge improvements against. But it seems incompatible with an approach that seemingly is happy to allow petulant teenagers to dictate who they will, and will not play for.

Kevin Pietersen, one of the most talented batsmen for a generation was kicked out as England captain because he could not work with the coach. In a 'him or me' ultimatum they both lost their jobs because the England and Wales Cricket Board knew that to cave into a player's demands would set a bad precedent.

Given that, there is not a single sportsman or woman in Bermuda, or anywhere for that matter, that can claim to be good enough to dictate who they will or will not play for.

As one former national hockey player put it: "If you truly love the sport then you'll play for anyone. But none of the players in Bermuda are good enough to say who the coach should, or should not, be."

A full-time coach is also a fine idea, but Mello wants the coach to concentrate on working in the schools and steer clear of the national team. His idea of employing a new technical director to oversee a national programme would also be a good one, if he didn't qualify it by continually refering to a 'cultural divide'.

Katie Beach, a former All-American from the University of Maryland, captain of the US women's hockey team, and coach at Columbia University for five years has recently moved to the Island. She arguably has more coaching experience, playing experience, and hockey knowledge than the rest of the Island put together.

However.

"She's relatively new to the Island," said Mello. "When we talk about designing a new national team programme, those are the type of people we would look to bring in. But being new to the Island, and being American, you are probably going to run into the same cultural differences."

Publically most of the federation refuse to speak, rather the row had stayed internal where it could be sorted out behind closed doors. Privately, however, they talk of frustrations at a rift that has split the sport, and of a president without the full support of the membership. The recent e-mail 'has not gone down well inside the federation', and many believe the return of former president Justin Freisenbruch would go a long way to healing a split that is in danger of becoming terminal.

What many do say, however, is that the time has come for a new approach. A full-time coach would be welcomed, and given the splits within the federation it might be the only answer.

There appear to be too many alliances for anyone currently involved to take overall charge, so someone with no loyalties to any team, or group, would be perfect. More than likely that coach would be non-Bermudian, but that would be no bad thing. In the world of sport, you are either good enough, or you aren't. And you'll either work hard enough, or you won't.

It remains to be seen if Mello's position has become untenable. Certainly a president is supposed to be a unifying force who operates for the good of all the members, and at the moment it does not appear as if the current incumbent fullfils either criteria.

However, it would be wrong to ignore the problems that hockey on the Island has. It is a sport struggling to come to terms with the demands of the modern game, being happy amatuers is no-longer sufficient to compete. And it is true that there is a lack of young players coming through.

As Judy (Siddle) Simons, a former hockey president and current president of the Bermuda Olympic Association, put it: "Hockey is at a crossroads, and it is quite clear that they have issues to deal with before they can move forward."