Rodney Trott will captain Bermuda’s senior national cricket team during a whirlwind tour of Barbados.Interim national coach Arnold Manders confirmed yesterday that the all-rounder will serve as the team’s leader in the absence of Bailey’s Bay team-mate Stephen Outerbridge who is unavailable to make the trip because of work commitments.The former Western Stars and Bermuda skipper says he’s confident Trott will be equal to the task given his wealth of international experience at both senior and junior level.“Rodney is very capable of doing the job in Barbados,” Manders said. “He captained Bermuda at the Under-19 World Cup and has attended cricket academies all around the world.“Rodney started playing at a very young age and has lots of experience and if need be he can always look to senior player Janeiro Tucker for advice.”Manders also confirmed that the trio of Malachi Jones, Lionel Cann and former Bermuda skipper David Hemp are also unavailable for the trip.“Of course, we would’ve liked to have had Hemp, Stephen, Lionel and Malachi available, but unfortunately that’s not the case,” he said. “But this will give us the chance to look at some other players who are on the fringe.”Bermuda’s 13-man squad that leaves for the Caribbean on Thursday is as follows: Rodney Trott (capt), Jekon Edness, Jason Anderson, Treadwell Gibbons, Sammy Robinson, Janeiro Tucker, Dion Stovell, Dennico Hollis, Jacobi Robinson, Tre Manders, Kamau Leverock, Greg Maybury and Delray Rawlins.Manders, Leverock, Maybury and Rawlins are presently based in the UK and will join up with the squad in the Caribbean.Coach Manders, assistant coach Clevie Wade and manager Lionel Tannock will accompany the team on tour.While in Barbados, Bermuda will play two 50-over matches against local opposition this weekend as well as another 50-ove gamer and two Twenty20 matches next week before returning home on February 21.The training exercise is part of Bermuda’s preparations for next month’s Americas Division One Twenty20 Championship in Florida and April’s ICC World Cricket League (WCL) Division Three Championship on local soil.Yesterday saw the nine locally based squad members involved in a training session at Sea Breeze Oval conducted by ICC Americas High Performance Officer Andy Pick and England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) spin bowling specialist coach Chris Brown.The duo are scheduled to conduct three training sessions in all with senior national squad players before the team depart for the Caribbean.Coach Manders says the training sessions were vital to Bermuda’s preparations for the upcoming international commitments as they afford them the opportunity to practise game-day scenarios in an ideal environment.“We’ve been inside the gym for the last three months and it’s important that the players get out in the middle so they can get into game situations in an open field,” he said. “Often they play shots in the nets and don’t know if it’s an out shot or runs but here it’s more closer to a game situation so it’s very important for them to be here.“We have some very important matches coming up in the next week (in Barbados) and it’s important we get outside and do some fielding, batting and bowling, particularly for the medium pacers being confined to three or four paces (in the gym).“They need to be able to run through so it’s very important to be out here. The last few tournaments we’ve been to without no outside practise and it’s took a toll on us.“The weather has been very good and we’ve only missed one training session which was last Saturday. We started on January 12 (training outdoors) and had good wickets. The groundsman (Glen Gilbert) has done an excellent job preparing the wicket this time of the year and the wicket has been extremely good.”Manders said team morale was high with each squad member pulling their weight.“Most of the guys came up with each other or playing against each other so they are a pretty close knit team,” he added. “Team morale is good and the guys are ready to go.”