changed considerably since the team's controversial outing in Malaysia a month ago.

Several players are missing for various reasons, including captain Albert Steede who is committed to a lamaze class with his pregnant wife Shauntia on Saturday, national team coach Allan Douglas disclosed yesterday.

The Indians, who arrived from New York yesterday, play a Select XI squad today at Somerset and the Bermuda national team on Saturday at St. David's.

Steede first took over the Bermuda captaincy during a warmup tour of Barbados in 1993 when then captain Wendell Smith pulled out because of a knee injury and Smith's replacement as captain, Charlie Marshall, also had to withdraw because of illness.

Now Steede's unavailability has opened the way for Clay Smith -- Wendell's younger brother -- to lead the team while Marshall is amongst a number of players who will be missing.

The new-look team contains several surprises with the starting team likely to have four or five players who were not part of the team which under-performed at the ICC Trophy in Malaysia when they failed to advance past the preliminary round.

The team's performance, as well as the conduct of some players, has since come under the microscope. Veteran batsman Marshall, who was reportedly involved in an incident with Douglas in Malaysia is not included, nor are the likes of Corey Hill, Kevin Hurdle, Kameron Fox and Glenn Smith-Blakeney, who was married on Sunday.

Roger Blades and Jermaine Postlethwaite are both ruled out because of injury, opening the way for paceman Dale Fox to return to the team after a four-year absence which was brought on by `chucking' claims during the 1993 tour of Barbados.

Fox's recall was sealed by his six-wicket debut for Western Stars against St.

David's and his new-ball partner will be Stars' team-mate Allan Brangman.

Douglas, chairman of the Bermuda selectors, admits a "bit of experimenting' went into the selection process as some new players were considered, including Devonshire Rec. batsman Anthony Amory who earns a recall and Jason Lewis, the talented St. George's batsman. Both, certainly Lewis, are likely to play, with Lewis also picked to play today.

Arnold Manders and Dexter Smith are two of the other survivors from the Malaysia trip and Smith will open the batting with Roger Trott. Allrounder Janeiro Tucker and spinners Hasan Durham and Bruce Perinchief complete the 12 from which the team will be chosen. Youth squad players Azeem Pitcher and Monroe Darrell are included as reserves in order to gain the experience.

"We're looking at players very closely,'' said Douglas, who declined to discuss why certain players were omitted.

"You can pick the bones out of it, anybody in their right mind can see what is happening,'' was his response. The other members of the selection committee are John Tucker, El James, Delby Borden and Vance Gilbert.

"The selectors sat and deliberated quite long and we talked about a million and one issues and how we're going to chart our course for the futu-re. We're just picking what we think is the best team from the players we have available to play the Indians.'' Bermuda make changes to squad In the past the Bermuda Cricket Board of Control had four years between major engagements to prepare a team but now with the team in the Shell/Sandals there is little time to experiment before they travel back to the Caribbean in October.

"You can see in our selections what we're trying to do,'' said Douglas.

"After the Malaysia tour we have to take a good look at all players, really, and we're looking to see which combination is best. We've got some time to work on that and we're asking people to be patient and let us get on with our work for awhile.'' The Indians had just a day to rest before today's match at noon against a Bermuda Select XI captained by Olin Jones.

Coach Madal Lal promised that the team would take the matches seriously. He remembered Bermuda being a "pretty good side'' when he was coach of the United Arab Emirates team which beat Bermuda in the ICC Tournament in 1994 in Kenya. "We have come here to play cricket and won't be taking it lightly,'' said Lal, a former Test allrounder.

The Indians have brought 15 players to Bermuda but one of them, batsman Navjot Sidhu, is unlikely to play because of injuries which have already forced him out of the Independent Cup the Indians will be hosting when they return home on Sunday.

TOUR SQUADS BERMUDA SELECT TEAM Donald Norford, Calvin Dill Jr, Shae Pitcher, Olin Jones (Captain), Kwame Tucker, Jason Simons, Gary Williams, Reid Jones, Irving Burgess, Jason Lewis, Gregg Foggo, Don Vickers, Justin Robinson, Dale Benjamin.

BERMUDA NATIONAL TEAM Clay Smith (captain), Dean Minors, Arnold Manders, Dexter Smith, Anthony Amory, Jason Lewis, Janeiro Tucker, allan Brangman, Dale Fox, Hasan Durham, Roger Trott, Bruce Perinchief. Reserves Azeem Pitcher, Monroe Darrell.

INDIA Sachin Tendulkar (captain), Anil Kumble, Mohammed Azharuddin, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Abey Kuruvilla, Ajay Jadeja, Saha Karim, Noel David, Nayan Mongia, Dodda Ganesh, Sunil Joshi, Venkata Laxman, Robin Singh.