Bermuda players to attend camp in Australia

Six of Bermuda's cricketers will go to Australia later this month for a six-week intensive training programme at the Sports Gateway Academy in Brisbane as the country prepares to qualify for the 2011 World Cup.

The group, which is likely to include spinners, Rodney Trott and Tamauri Tucker, opener Oronde Bascome, and possibly the captain Irving Romaine, will be announced in the coming weeks. The likes of Stephen Outerbridge, Jekon Edness and Stefan Kelly were unable to make the trip since they would he going to university in the UK.

"It will be a chance to improve their performances in a different environment, a different system," Bermuda coach Gus Logie told the Bermuda Sun. "Australia have proven, beyond a doubt, to be at the top of the game in terms of facilities, coaching, lifestyle, mental approach and discipline.

"I think they have an attitude that says 'excellence is the only way to go'. If we can send six guys and they can get that attitude for six weeks in Australia and bring it back here and it rubs off on six more then it will have been worth it."

The Bermuda players will be training along with young cricketers from Pakistan, India, New Zealand, South Africa and Scotland and playing matches against local sides.

"We have a pretty busy schedule right up to the qualifying tournament and we need to make sure our core group is active," Logie said. "Quite a few of them are going back to school but those that aren't need to be training regularly in the right environment."

Bermuda's next international assignment is defending the ICC America's Championship in Florida in November.