Time for Bermuda to embrace the future

By James Whittaker
After helping his Trinidad and Tobago side scoop the one million dollar jackpot at the Stanford 20-20 tournament Dwayne Bravo described the win as the best moment of his career.
It sounded bizarre coming from someone who has scored Test match hundreds for the West Indies.
But the spectacle in Antigua and the multi-million dollar player auction that launched the Indian Premier League last week showed that, like it or not, 20-20 is the future of international cricket.
There is no greater sporting spectacle than a competitive Test match. The ebb and flow of a five-day game, the rigorous examination of technique and mental fortitude are unparalleled across the breadth of the sporting spectrum.
But it is an elite form of the game and one that Bermuda can never seriously hope to be part of.
Anyone who watched teenage squad players blocking for a draw in front of a handful of old timers in the two-day competition last year could see there was little enthusiasm for the longer format on the island.
An India versus Pakistan nailbiter on a Calcutta dustbowl or an Ashes clash that goes right down to the wire will always be the most refined form of entertainment that sport can offer.
But you couldn’t pay me to sit through four days of an Intercontinental Cup clash between Holland and Scotland.

Just because you like classical music, that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a pop record as well.
20-20 is the pop format of cricket. It’s fast, it’s exciting and it’s got people talking about cricket again.
When was the last time you saw an atmosphere like the Stanford final for a cricket game? How about never.
20-20, for all it’s flaws, has the power to bring people back to the game. And that is what cricket in Bermuda needs more than anything.
Over the next decade the glamour, the money and the crowds will flock to 20-20. And it makes sense for us to be on board.

Comments

[Arutchelvan Adhimoolam]

All the Bermuda Cricket players need more practice. More over they are not playing cricket as full time. They are working and playing cricket as part time. If they do like this then they can not compete with others whose full time concentration is only Cricket. About women's cricket players they have to watch their physical fitness as well in order to perform well.

[TriniBda]

Sorry Arutchelvan Adhimoolam can't agree with you there!! You are saying that part timers could never compete with full time or professional players but there have been more than enough instances where part timers have proven their worth on the top sporting stages of the world. I represented my country for 11 years at our regional games ( CACs and PanAms ) and me and my mates were not full time players - hell we weren't even paid for what we did. We all had regular jobs and families yet that didn't stop us from accumalting silver and bronze medals in the Pan Ams and gold, silver and bronze in the CACs. We did what we did because we were proud to represent our country, courageous, determined, had a never say die attitude and possessed a will to win! ALL EIGHTEEN OF US!! I was taught long ago that being a professional does not exist in the paycheck but it exists in the mind. If the athletes here were to train as if they were professionals and stop making mountains out of mole hills (I can't go training because it's too cold or it rained this morning so the field MIGHT be wet) then a marked difference in results would be seen. Instead what do you have here?? I could answer that based on my experience with coaching the local 'athletes' but we all know the answer. These 'athletes' here have everything given to them on a silver platter - facilities, uniforms, contracts etc. All they have to do is show up which they fail to do with alarming regularity! You know why? Because as in their regular lives they never had to struggle for anything. Life is to ( so) easy here. How can someone who has gotten everthing that they ever wanted handed to them ever COMPETE for a medal? It can never work - their mindset is why should I have to work hard and sacrifice when I can lay back, give 50% effort, and still make the team because I'm the best at my position so the coach will still pick me and I might get a nice trip at the end of all this to some nice place. So Arutchelvan Adhimoolam this is why I have to disagree with you. Maybe if you said 'Bermudian part timers' cannot compete with full time players then I would have just switched this computer off and gone to bed because no amount of physical preparation will make mentally deficient athletes successful!! Just one last point about the term part timer - I once met a man from the Dominican Republic who was a part time athlete. He told me that he trained in his backyard seven days a week, after working for ten hours, for two and a half years in order to be selected on the Taekwondo squad. Why? Because success in his sporting discipline was the way out of a life of poverty for him and his family. Professionalism - mindset with purpose!

[george]

i agree