Romaine upbeat about Bermuda's future

Bermuda captain Irving Romaine has said that cricket in Bermuda was heading in the right direction and believes that they will be a force to come in the coming years since the Under-19 team has qualified for the World Cup.

"This is very much a time for rebuilding," Romaine said. "We lost half our team after the World Cup, players like Saleem Mukuddem, Dean Minors, Clay Smith, Janeiro Tucker and Kwame Tucker, so that is not easy to recover from.

"But I am hopeful for the future because we have a lot of good teenagers coming through now. Our U-19s just qualified for next year's U-19 World Cup [for the first time in Bermuda's history] and there is still enormous interest in cricket at home."

Bermuda were about to be strengthened by the return of some U-19 players ahead of their Intercontinental Cup match against Ireland in Dublin on Thursday. Stefan Kelly, Malachi Jones, Chris Douglas and Rodney Trott will fly in to Ireland this week after their recent successes in Toronto.

"We are a relatively inexperienced side now and it is up to some of those under-19s to show what they can do," Romaine said. "They are going to be the heart of this team for the coming years as we build towards the World Cup in 2011 and it will be interesting to see how they develop."

Bermuda have not had a successful tour of Europe so far. They lost to Netherlands by an innings in an Intercontinental Cup match but Romaine's form has been superb. He scored 103 out of his side's 183 all out in the first innings against Netherlands.

"I have a huge responsibility to contribute with the bat every time I go out there and I'm enjoying that added pressure," Romaine said. "I'm feeling good at the moment and so hopefully that will improve."

Ireland will want to register their first outright win of this campaign against Bermuda after bad weather ruined their opener against Scotland. They will be missing a few key players with left-hander Eoin Morgan turning out for Middlesex, opening batsman Jeremy Bray still unavailable for selection and medium-pacer Boyd Rankin sidelined due to injury.

Ireland: Trent Johnston (capt), Andre Botha, Alex Cusack, Thinus Fourie, Dominick Joyce, David Langford-Smith, Kyle McCallan, Kevin O'Brien, Niall O'Brien (wk), Greg Thompson, William Porterfield, Andrew White.

Bermuda: Irving Romaine (capt), Stephen Outerbridge, Dwayne Leverock, Lionel Cann, Jekon Edness, James Celestine, Arthur Pitcher, Ryan Steede, George O'Brien, Roderick Masters, Stefan Kelly, Chris Douglas, Malachi Jones, Rodney Trott.