The Bermuda cricket team arrive back on the Island this evening having completed a tour to South Africa and Namibia that, on the face of it, was anything but successful.

Well beaten in their competitive fixtures, the team will now have to beat United Arab Emirates, or at least take the first innings points available, to avoid finishing bottom without a single point to their name in this season's Intercontinental Shield.

Additionally their performances in the one-day games, which they lost convincingly, don't bode well for the upcoming Americas tournament, which will be held on the Island at the start of this summer.

In the past three weeks, the batsmen have largely lacked application, technique is poor in key areas, and the bowlers, save Justin Pitcher and Rodney Trott, really failed to fire.

So, on results alone, the tour would appear to have been a disaster and, technically, it means that new head coach David Moore has lost his first three games in charge.

And yet the situation isn't as black and white as that.

There were spells in every game that Bermuda played where they showed flashes of being a good team. The first two sessions on the first day of the Intercontinental Shield, when Bermuda reached tea 164 for three, undoubtedly belonged to the tourists as did the final session on the second day, when, having spent all day in the field, and seen Namibia's openers put on a record 374-run stand, they battled back to take six wickets for 117 runs. Lesser sides would have crumbled completely.

They also bowled well in the first one-day game, restricting the home side to 268 for six on a ground where 300 was considered par.

It should also be acknowledged that Namibia are just the better team, and while defeat hurts, there is no disgrace in being beaten by a better side no matter how much the Island's cricketing pride might have been hurt in the process.

Ask anyone connected with the team and they will tell you that the atmosphere in the squad is better than it has been for some time, the attitude to training has improved immeasurably, as has the work ethic.

However, and it is a big however, there appear to be genuine concerns over the ability of the side to learn from their mistakes. One member of the touring party even went so far as to question whether what the players were being taught 'went in one ear, and out the other'.

On occasion it also appeared as defeat didn't hurt some players enough, and yet in a team that has become used to being on the wrong end of the result more often than not, it's possible some players have become immune to that pain.

For David Moore changing that losing culture will be just as important as cutting out the basic errors. He's already acknowledged that there is an expectation of failure in the squad, and maybe that is where the real problem lies.

There is also the perception, rightly or wrongly, that better players were left at home. In terms of talent that may well be the case, but producing a successful team isn't always about having the most talented players available.

It would be a mistake to bring in players who are not willing to work as hard as Moore will demand. Some have already proved they aren't, and that's why they didn't make the team.

Almost to a man, this group of players have shown a willingness to work hard and the ones that weren't were quickly put in their place by Moore at the beginning of the tour, and knuckled down thereafter.

Results wise then this tour was a massive disappointment but in terms of the team's development, it was actually hugely successful.

The coaches have learnt more about the team in three weeks than they did in two months of winter training, and skipper David Hemp believes the side aren't that far 'from pulling it altogether'.

Moore has also seen first hand the task that awaits him when he gets to Bermuda next month, which is far better than coming in cold with less than a month to go before the Americas tournament begins on May 28.

However, the real test for the coaches, and the team, starts now. It is easy for players to work hard, and commit, when they are in their bubble on tour.

Now that they are back they will return to their clubs and the danger is the bad habits developed there – poor running between the wickets, a tendency to look for the big shot instead of working the ball around, and wayward bowling that still gets rewarded – will return and be re-enforced by success.

At the moment the temptation is to consign this tour to the dustbin of history as just another failure in a long line of failures stretching back several years.

And yet, if Bermuda do well in the Americas tournament with the squad they have, if they show signs of having learnt from their mistakes when UAE visit in July, and if the players continue to commit as they must then it might not have been such a disaster after all.

It might become the moment people point to in the future as the turning point for Bermuda cricket. Or it might just be another failure, only time will tell.

See tomorrow's Gazette for player by player analysis and team statistics