Bermuda's national cricket squad was hit for a six yesterday with news that the International Cricket Council has cancelled this summer's World Cup qualifying series because of financial worries.

The squad has only recently begun serious training for the event, scheduled for Los Angeles in September, and the players were told about the development during a session at Bermuda College last night.

Earlier in the day, Bermuda Cricket Board president Reggie Pearman, told The Royal Gazette that he was saddened to learn about the cancellation, which was announced during the World Cup in South Africa last week.

However, he said there were other international events that were being investigated for Bermuda to participate in, starting with the Red Stripe Bowl in the West Indies later this year.

The news will obviously force Bermuda to make adjustments to their senior national programme and has led to questions marks being raised over the recently announced tour to Trinidad and Tobago in May and an incoming tour by a West Indies team, both specifically designed to prepare the team for the Los Angeles games.

"We are obviously disappointed with this piece of news as the World Cup Qualifying Series offered a structured opportunity to (qualify for) the World Cup in 2007," said Pearman.

"The original plan for Bermuda to join five Associate countries in Los Angeles in September in the Group B League would have given our squad a good opportunity to measure its progress and further some development criteria."

The main reason behind the cancellation of the qualifying round was that funding to Associate Members of ICC from this year's World Cup has been reduced significantly.

Reportedly, the view of the Associate Directors was that, should the qualifying series remain in place, the administration and development grants paid directly to countries would be reduced to such a level that many associate members would have their normal operations detrimentally affected.

As a follow-up to the surprise move management will now work with associate directors over the next two months to help come up with a format for the ICC Trophy in 2005, and identify what qualification system will be used to determine which countries take part.

A proposal will be presented to the associate members at the annual council meeting in June.

Had the preliminary plans remained unchanged, Bermuda would have gone to Los Angeles to compete against Ireland, Denmark, United States, Uganda and Nepal as part of the 27-team global qualifying format.

Having had that round snatched away, Bermuda's Cricket Board is now focusing on other international options.

"We have been negotiating with representatives of the West Indies Cricket Board over the past six months regarding Bermuda participating in the Red Stripe Bowl," said Pearman.

"We believe the 2003 competition is scheduled for September and would represent an excellent opportunity for competitive cricket and development of our senior side.

"Consequently, we are actively pursuing this avenue, as well as a number of other potential senior competitive cricketing opponents.

"We have many options to fill the gap and we would hope that our players continue to train hard in preparation for these plans."

According to the president, plans for the tour of Trinidad and Tobago will be discussed during a Board meeting next week and he appeared optimistic it would still go ahead.

"The training camp is an important part of the development and team building for our national side," he said.

"We will be giving the matter serious consideration in the coming weeks."