David Moore, the head coach of Bermuda’s national cricket team, has been on the Island for little more than a month. He talked to Royal Gazette senior sports reporter Josh Ball about his impressions of the state of the game in Bermuda, and his hopes for the the future.Q- David, you’ve been here a month, how has your impression of the job, and your perspective of Bermuda cricket changed from your initial thoughts.

A- I think probably the most important thing for me is that there is a lot of ability on the Island, and we’ve got to harness that ability, and point it in the right direction so we get the results, with those people that want to be part of the programme.

Nothing has changed in my ideas about the sorts of people I want in the programme. They have to be committed to play, committed to practise, to doing their best for Bermuda.

None of that has changed. Probably the important thing is to tick a few more boxes. I think fitness is clearly an issue for our players, and if we want to compete and progress back up the ODI and T20 ladder we’ve got to be able to participate in tournament play. Tournament play is all about backing up, day in, day out, which we showed in the Americas we couldn’t quite do. So we’ve certainly got a few things to work on but I’m pleased with the raw and natural ability of the guys on the Island, but again it’s about how much they want to commit to the task at hand.

Q- How long does ticking boxes like being committed and willing to work hard carry you before performances come into the equation as well. And vice versa?

A- Obviously what I am looking for is a rounded athlete that ticks all boxes. But just because you are the most talented person . . . the boxes are weighted. Just because you are the most talented person doesn’t mean you are (naturally) going to be part of the group.

The most talented people might not eventually play because I am looking for guys who tick all the boxes. So if you have some ability and you’re a good person, you’ve got a better chance than someone who has all the ability and then some, but isn’t a very good person.

Q- Considering the ability of players on the Island, how surprised were you about some of the basic things that seem to be lacking in Bermuda cricket, specifically things like, running between the wickets, game awareness, etc?

A- I was surprised and I wasn’t surprised. Obviously the fact that the grounds are so small (in Bermuda) doesn’t encourage people to drop and run as much as they probably have to on bigger grounds. So you’ve got that release valve were you can boff one for six, rather than knock the ball around for ones. So I wasn’t surprised about that.

The running between the wickets I wasn’t surprised, really only because that goes with the territory of having the small grounds. But, still, there are plenty of times where I have watched in local cricket, domestic cricket, where people have missed singles they should have got, or doubles, or triples, just because of poor running between the wickets. There’s a lot of ball watching goes on, too much ball watching in our team. And I’m assuming if it’s in our team it’ll be dispersed throughout the Island.

But that’s something that we’ve got to jump on in the development squads. They (the players) shouldn’t be getting to our level and still be running poorly. That’s something that needs to be addressed in the development squads, but also at club level.

Q- Outside of the senior squad what are the things that have struck you most about cricket on the Island in the last four weeks or so?

A- Well I think the club level cricket is better than I was told it was going to be. And I think that the Under-19s, there are good kids that are coming through and they’re the two really encouraging things for me, because it means that there is a base there.

People talk about a small player pool, but even though it’s a small Island, there’s probably more players to pick from talent wise than other places in the world.

I don’t think you can be deceived by the small player pool argument. The issue is, this is our national sport, there are lots of people per capita playing the game and they grow up with cricket and with a love of cricket.

That’s not something many of the other Associate countries can say, that this is their number one summer sport. In fact, probably none of the other Associates can say that. So we’ve got that tradition and a history that I don’t think we play off of enough.

I don’t think we play off the fact that all the players are actually representing their country of birth, rather than their country of adoption and again there’s lots of that (among the Associate nations).

So we’ve got to play off those things because the ICC aren’t going to change their rules. The qualification rules are going to be the same for everyone in the world.

That’s not the issue, the issue is that we need to do be the very best we can and forget about all the variables.

I’m not interested in an excuse culture, sometimes I hear excuses that are irrelevant because we’ve got no control over them. I can only worry about, and we as a country, and we as an organisation can only worry about what we can control. The things that are out of my control I don’t even waste time worrying about.

Q- When you talk about the other Associates and qualification, there have been people who have got themselves wound up about the make-up of the Canada and America teams. Aren’t they just doing what they need to make their programmes a success?

A- I think everyone needs to understand, as I clearly understand, America and China are the two areas that appear to me to be ICC focused growth areas.

Obviously they have massive populations, if you only get a small percentage of those people playing the game, you increase the playing pool, plus there is the whole commercial side with the US as well.

Again, there is no point in worrying about something that we can’t control. They’re playing by the rules, it’s ironic that everyone knows that there aren’t many born and bred players in those countries. But they played by the rules and it doesn’t really matter, I’m not going to get wound up about it.

We’ve got to feed off what’s important to us, and being someone from outside of Bermuda, I come from a country that sporting wise is very nationalistic (Australia).

I just think that the players need to have a great deal of pride in the fact that they have the honour, and it is an honour, of playing for Bermuda.

There are many people who have come before us, and will do in the future, who wish they were in those guys’ positions.

I think the majority of those guys (the players) really understand the importance of playing for their country, and being good people, I think the squad we have, they are good people.

I think the reputation of the team isn’t great, but I’d like to show people that the guys in this team really want to do something, not only for their country on the cricket field, but also for their communities off the cricket field.

Many of the guys in the squad coach nearly all the junior teams in their club, which for me is a really big thing. You don’t get too many places in the world where national cricketers go down and coach one team, let alone four teams.

Q -How good are Bermuda compared to Canada and USA at the moment?

A -At the moment we are beating the teams we should beat and we are doing it quite well.

So we are in a situation where we are beating teams we should beat, now we’ve got to beat the other teams. Really we should have beaten the USA, we are as good a team as them, we just didn’t believe enough.

But it is what it is, and you can only play the cards you are dealt. I can’t wish for 15 first class players to be dropped on to the Island, because I’ve got these guys, and they are good guys.

I don’t want 15 first-class players dropped on the Island because the lads I’ve got I want to work with. Whereas these other countries they keep searching the globe for blokes, which I find quite bizarre. Our strength is our bond, and the country, and everyone knows that when they go out they are actually representing their country.

I feel very strongly about that, that’s a quality we have that other places can’t match.

Q -You recently started a thing where new players are presented with their cap on the field before a debt, surrounded by their team-mates. When you talk about pride (in playing for your country) is it a case of trying to make the cap like being an Australian cricketer and being given the baggy green?

A- I think each country has their own unique . . . I’m not trying to turn Bermuda cricket into Australian cricket, nowhere near it, because it’s a different culture and that’s not the way it should be. There should be that Bermuda culture, that Bermuda taste that emanates throughout their cricket. But I just think that we need some symbols.

I don’t want them to play for the cap, I want them to play for their country. So whatever the symbol is, whether it’s the flag, or the uniform, or the cap, or whatever, it’s not relevant other than being a symbol to the players.

I want the guys to play for themselves, and their country, and the people that support them. We’re getting good support, we saw it the other day at Bailey’s Bay and the National Sports Centre. And I think the guys need to be very aware of the significance cricket has, and the role it can play in bringing the country together.

Q- What are your thoughts on the National Sports Centre?

A- I just think the national stadium is beautiful, it’s an international venue, it’s a fantastic venue. You go to most of the Test playing grounds in the world and it’s at least their equal on the outfield, and better than many.

I think we need to utilize it more as an organisation, and I’d love to see that as the national training centre for cricket. We’ve got those good facilities (the nets) in that area set aside, I’d like to see if we could expand that, to make it a little bit bigger and get both turf and synthetic plastic facilities up and running.

The nets we use at Berkley are very nice, but really we need to have that identity that that’s our home.

And we need to have the National Stadium as our home, just as the Bermuda Hogges have BAA Field, we need to have a home.

That’s your home, you practise, you play, and it gives you that feel, and the love of the ground, and that understanding of how that ground plays. Because as I’ve said to you before, if we do host more games, we can only play in one place, and that’s the National Stadium, because it gives us a feel for what an international ground is.

Definitely I want that to be our home.

Q -You’ve talked about wanting to play more games after UAE. Do you think bringing teams to Bermuda is viable, or will you have to go abroad?

A- I ‘m not a numbers man, but I think obviously, sadly, the cost of hosting things here is extravagant, well expensive rather than extravagant. And we’ve got to get bang for our buck as well. In these tight financial times we’ve got to utilise every cent we can in the most effect way possible.

We can’t afford to waste any money, and I’ve no intention of wasting any money. So from that point of view, unfortunately, if we have to go abroad . . . I think people here and abroad think there is a never ending supply of money, and that’s not the case.

I’ve got to water all our junior programmes, our senior programmes, just to make sure those programmes give us the greatest value.

There is no point in sending people down to the Caribbean islands if it’s costing us double the airfare, and triple the accommodation it would to send them to Florida or Toronto.

Q- Do you have an idea of where you want to be, and where you want cricket to be in six months time?

A- Not at this stage, no. I’ve been here just over a month, and in that time I’ve had the (ICC Americas) tournament, in another three weeks we have UAE, so I’ve just been getting my head down and dealing with that at the moment preparing the senior team.

I really want to look at coach education, I also need to look at the strength and quality of cricket in the schools, and how we can help teachers become better coaches of the game, I suppose. Because a lot of those schools teachers are volunteers, just like the parents are, so we definitely need to look at that type of stuff.

Cricket in the schools is going to be very prominent in the relationship Bermuda Cricket Board has with the Department of Education.

I also want us to take a stronger role in the community. Not to be seen because it’s the right thing to be seen, but because it should happen, that cricket is very aware of the needs of the community.

Obviously I have to set up some winter programmes that I hope will bear fruit as quickly as possible. At this stage I’m looking at developing skill sets groups. So we’ll get all the batsmen together, all the bowlers together, and just runs specialist camps for those guys, rather than squads.

I think the young spinners can learn from Dwayne Leverock and Rodney Trott and these guys, they are important people to learn from. I think the wicketkeepers can learn from people from the past, which I think is very important.

Again, if you ask me in another month, I may have a different opinion. But overall it’s looking at the quality, and the product of cricket on the Island, that’s what I’ve got to do.