Dear Sir,

Like most Bermuda cricket fans I was quite pleased that our national team won their first warm up game ahead of the World Cup qualifiers in South Africa. Winning builds confidence and self-belief which is crucial in a tournament of this magnitude.

Unfortunately talented opening batsman Chris Douglas picked up an injury in the match which has ruled him out of the competition.

Interestingly Douglas's replacement Jacobi Robinson brings greater balance to the squad's bowling attack. The inclusion of Robinson provides skipper Irving Romaine with another pace bowler to call upon, in my opinion the selectors original decision to carry only three fast bowlers was cutting it a bit close.

Truth be told Jacobi has no right to find himself in this position, he should really be an automatic selection in any Bermuda squad but his international career has suffered because of a basic lack of fitness.

A fit Jacobi Robinson brings three things to our national team, the ability to take wickets, good fielding and explosive late order batting, he is one of those rare cricketers who have the ability to change a match on his own.

Unfortunately he has failed in the past to work hard on his fitness and both he and Bermuda have suffered as a result. Hopefully this call up will turn him around!

When queried about who may be called upon to fill the opening slot vacated by Douglas, Coach Gus Logie mentioned the names, Fiqre Crockwell, Glenn Blakeney and Jekon Edness.

However I think Logie may well be over looking the obvious here, I think he should seriously consider David Hemp in fact I can think of no other batsmen in the squad more suited to play the 'anchor' role than Hemp.

Let's face it; David Hemp is the only player in the Bermuda side who has played the game at first class level.

Over the past twenty years he has faced many of the finest bowlers in the world while representing Glamorgan, Free State and Warwickshire, therefore opening at associate level should not prove difficult for him.

According to reliable sources he is a batsman who patiently builds his innings but once he gets set does have the ability to score freely.

He should be considered far and away the best batsman in the side and as such we should allow him the chance to bat the entire 50 overs in order that we can get as many runs as possible out of him.

He is also the ideal foil for Lionel Cann who is considerably more aggressive in his batting approach.

Thursday's match against a High Performance Centre XI should prove interesting but I am really keen to see how we perform in our practice match against Namibia, that should really let us know where we stand for three reasons:-

1. Namibia are a strong and ambitious team

2. Namibia are familiar with South African conditions because they play there regularly in one and three day competitions

3. Bermuda have yet to defeat Namibia in a cricket match

Also the rivalry between the two teams is strong; I can recall when Bermuda visited Namibia several years ago, things got so heated Gus Logie had to pull his players off the field. It is unlikely that any love will be lost between the sides which should make for a good contest.

Finally I have been approached by several cricket fans regarding the Delyone Borden saga, however I do not know the details of what really went down and would not wish to speak out of turn.

I can also think of at least three individuals with close ties to the Bermuda Cricket Board who represented St.David's Cricket Club, watched Delyone grow up and actually played with his father the late Delby Borden. One would have expected them to speak to the issue.

I will say this I was disappointed that he was not selected to go to South Africa because I believe he is the number one off-spinner on the Island.

Recman