Smoking weed — the new national sport?

By Lionel Cann
Smoking dope has become the national sport in Bermuda.
If we really want to increase the number of players available for the national team and get guys to training, we need to do something about the drug problem in this country.
We’ve heard more talk this week about the number of players not turning out for the national squad and as someone who has been around cricket my whole life I can tell you the biggest problem is marijuana.
If we could stop people smoking weed we would have triple the amount of players available.
It’s a serious social issue and it’s something we really need to address. If you can’t give up marijuana to play for your country and reach the pinnacle of your sport then you have a serious, serious problem.
I know for a fact that there are a lot of players who won’t give up weed to play for their country. It’s crazy.
Kids as young as 13 and 14 are getting hooked on it.
If we invested money into educating people and stopping the country’s marijuana problem it would do more for sport than anything.
We’ve had this problem for years and we have turned a blind eye to it but we can’t turn a blind eye any more because it’s right there infront of us every day.
Every football match you go to, every cricket game you go to, you have the scent of marijuana.
You can’t hide from it because it’s everywhere you go.

The other main reason guys don’t turn out for training is because they don’t like the guys in charge.
That happens at club level as well.
All the time you hear guys saying ‘I’ll come back and play, when this guy or that guy leaves”.
Other guys just don’t want to do the work required or they are afraid of failure.
For me, I would love to still be playing. But I have spent the last four years traveling with Bermuda and it costs me money every time I play.
The BCB is not compensating me for my second job and the bills are mounting up at home. I just can’t afford to play for my country.
I’ve told the board I can train one night a week with the national squad and one night with my club as well as playing every weekend, but other times I have to work. I’d like to play on the upcoming tour to Canada, but I can’t commit to four training sessions a week.
I’m sure there are plenty of guys who have equally good reasons. But that’s not the case with everyone.
The people before us fought for opportunities like the chance to train with that Australian fielding coach.
With the previous team — the one that went to the World Cup — everybody would have showed up for something like that.
Since the World Cup interest has decreased. It’s really hard work at that level and our young people don’t seem to like hard work.

Comments

[Real motives]

Is it just me ... or is Lionel Cann setting himself up for a life in Politics.

One of the definitons of the word sacrifice (google it) is "Forfeiture of something highly valued for the sake of one considered to have a greater value or claim".

I guess that many of the players do not consider playing for a Bermuda "a sake of greater value". Therein lies the problem.

[Contradiction]

Lionel .. first you say you cannot afford to play for Bermuda but then you go further on saying that you cannot train 4 times a week and can only train once. What is it? The Money? or the Laziness? So if the BCB agrees that You like Jose Morinho is the SPECIAL ONE and allow YOU to only train once will you go? LIFE IS ALL ABOUT CONSEQUENCES THAT RESULT FROM DECISIONS WE MAKE OR WE DONT MAKE. Live with it. To the BCB take the youngster who trains regularly even if he is not Lionel Cann.

[wildrover]

Great to see somebody talk honestly about the huge problem that we have amongst our athletes at present! If more people (including the sports administrators) are honest about this, instead of constantly being in denial, perhaps our main two sports can make significant strides forward.