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Borden is a big loss

By Lionel Cann
The loss of Delyone Borden from our World Cup qualifying squad is a huge blow. In my view he is as valuable to our team as Shane Warne was to Australia or Muttiah Muralitharan to Sri Lanka. I believe he has been our top spinner over the past 18 months and it will be doubly hard to qualify without him in the team.
The decision not to select him because of the issues on the recent tour is very disappointing.
There is much more to the story than people know and I am sure the truth will eventually come out.
In my experience Delyone is a player that has always given 100 per cent and I would ask people not to judge him too harshly.
He obviously has to take his share of the blame and maybe he should have handled the situation differently.
This is the third time I have been with him on tour and his pay has not come through. It happened at the World Cup in 2007 and again at the Americas Championship in Florida last year.
Maybe he should have taken the higher ground and played on, but everybody has a breaking point.
I know he was offered an advance by the board but I think by that point the damage had already been done.
Everybody could see that he was down and was in no mood to play cricket. He didn’t walk off the pitch in the middle of a game, he asked to be substituted because he was not in the mood to play.
I’m not excusing that but I understand where he is coming from. He felt let down and he was not in the right frame of mind to play.
Everyone has to take a share of the blame in this, including Delyone. But the worst thing about it is that this could have been avoided if things had been handled properly from the start.
We’ve been contracting players for four years now and it’s a shame to lose a player on the eve of one of the biggest tournaments in our history because of something like this. I hope that Delyone bounces back. He’s always shown a good attitude in the past and I think it would be unfair to judge him solely on the basis of what has happened over the past few weeks.

Borden, Hurdle miss out

Picture: Delyone Borden
By Don Burgess
Okay, here's the squad: Irving Romaine (Captain), David Hemp (vice-captain), Chris Douglas, Fiqre Crockwell, Lionel Cann, Stephen Outerbridge, Jekon Edness, Janiero Tucker, Glenn Blakeney, Dwayne Leverock, Rodney Trott, Tamauri Tucker, Stefan Kelly, Kyle Hodsoll, George O'Brien. Reserve: Jacobi Robinson, Jordan DeSilva, Kevon Fubler. I missed on Jacobi, Delyone and Hurdle. It's still a strong squad with youngsters Hodsoll and Tucker likely to be lightly-used.

Decision day approaches

Pictured: David Hemp
By Don Burgess
The cricket team will conclude its successful tour today - so successful that several players that may have been on the fringe of the selectors minds they have to be serious contenders to be picked. I'm going to toss out 15 names who I think should be on the squad and would like you to put up your 15 as well. In no particular order: Irving Romaine, David Hemp, Sluggo, Lionel Cann, Chris Douglas, Kevin Hurdle, George O'Brien, Stefan Kelly, Rodney Trott, Delyone Borden, Glenn Blakeney, Janeiro Tucker, Fiqre Crockwell, Stephen Outerbridge and Jacobi Robinson.

What deserves praise? (and what deserves ridicule?)

Don Burgess
Last week the Premier Brown congratulated the women's hockey team for its effort after finishing last in the Pan Am Cup at home. The women played some of the best teams in the world, and, in some games, were vastly outmatched. That was to be expected.
The crux of the problem, in some people's eyes, comes in the Premier's congratulatory letter to the team. He's just set the standard that any Bermudian team that competes against the world's best, deserves a pat on the back. Opportunities to take the field against the top teams in the world is a rare occurrence for Bermuda, and we should take pride in that. And when we produce a Brian Wellman, Nicky Saunders or MJ Tumbridge, we can be doubly proud. Bermuda will produce individual athletes who are world beaters - asking one of our teams to do the same would be asking for a miracle. So, yes, the women's team deserves a pat on the back rather than a knife in it.

Where now for Commercial footballers?

By James Whittaker
The Bermuda Football Association confirmed this week that it plans to scrap the Commercial Division.
BFA Technical director Derek Broadley has described the league as ‘selfish’ saying that it drains resources — fields, referees, players — that are badly needed at the top end of the game.
Other than a ten-team league for over-30s there is, apparently, no room in the new structure for recreational or pub footballers. That leaves 12 teams — the likes of MR Onions, Robin Hood and Lobster Pot — in the cold. The BFA clearly hopes the most talented players in the Commercial league will try out for teams in the First or Premier Division increasing competition for places and improving the overall standard.
The players they replace, along with the rest of the Commercial Division, will have to find their home in an expanded Breakfast League or form a breakaway division without support from the BFA. There’s an outside chance that the Association could expand the First Division, but it seems highly unlikely that they would admit more than one extra team.
So will the change have the desired effect and improve the standard of Bermudian football or will it, as MR Onions coach Phil Anderson suggests, simply leave 200 plus lads with a passion for football but nowhere to play?

10 teams or eight?

Don Burgess
The BFA will decide on whether to bump the Premier Division up to 10 or leave it at eight. Moving it to 10 will create a minor problem as to who gets included in the the revamped Premier Division, but the proposed solution seems simple enough - have the 7th place Premier team playoff against the 4th place First Division side and the 8th place team gets the First Division's third best team. Both the first and second place teams would automatically move up.
The move to 10 teams would help remove the lengthy gaps in the schedule, but goes against the reason why the BFA moved to eight teams in the first place - to have the best players only playing against each other as the way to develop players. By making the move back to 10 teams, the BFA is admitting that plan was a failure.

Power Rangers to the rescue

Don Burgess
Southampton got the result they needed with a 2-0 victory over soon to be deposed league champs PHC Zebras. The three points helps draw them level with PHC in the standings with five to go. Southampton still gets to play Colts - who, if they were a racehorse, would have been sent to glue factory already. They also have Hamilton Parish - a much trickier encounter, but beatable. That's not to limit Rangers to just two more victories, because as last weekend's result shows, they are capable of beating anybody.

Good headaches for coach Logie

Don Burgess With Lionel Cann, Janeiro Tucker and Glenn Blakeney back in the national cricket squad, there are a plethora of choices for coach Logie. His biggest problem may be in who does he sit out? There's nothing wrong with this lineup: Lionel Cann Chris Douglas Stephen Outerbridge Glenn Blakeney Janeiro Tucker David Hemp Jekon Edness Rodney Trott Kevin Hurdle Sluggo George O'Brien Pretty strong, eh? (I'm, practicing my Canadian) - except for the fact the skipper - Irving Romaine isn't in it. Put Irving in and the most likely casualty is Jekon with Irving or Hempie behind the stumps. It's going to be interesting to see who Logie puts on the field for the ICC Trophy.

A good walk ruined

Don Burgess
Anyone who's seen me redesigning the greens of a golf course with my divots would know not to rely on my advice on how to play the game. I was once paired with a four-handicapper on Port Royal and shot a brilliant 179 - thus ending any hopes he had of winning any awards. So it is a good thing the Bermuda Sun will be starting a new golf column on Friday with Eric 'Hav' Trott. You'll be able to count his his insights as to what's happening in Bermuda's golf world.

Can Cougars go unbeaten? - err no

Don Burgess
Halfway point of the season and Devonshire Cougars were finally felled by Dandy Town in a 2-0 loss. The title race is wide open amongst them, Town and Boulevard. At the other end of the scale, Colts look like they've broken a leg, and you know what they do to lame horses. Parish and Rangers have been pleasant surprises and could pull off a rare two come up and stay up scenario. But that would require either Village or PHC faltering. It would appear both of those sides have more class players than Southampton or the Hot Peppers, but class will only take you so far if you don't get the results.