been invited to be a part of a Rest of the World select which will embark on a five-nation tour later this year.

Gibbons, who plays for Buckhurst Cricket Club in the Essex Assembly Colour League in England during the summer months, was contacted by tour manager Brian McGidden over the weekend and asked if he would join the squad.

Delighted by the offer, the Bermudian readily accepted and has already planned to travel to London, where a squad meeting will be held at the Heathrow Hilton Hotel on April 16.

"It's a pleasure and honour to be called up once again as a part of the team, just another straw in my illustrious career,'' said Gibbons, unsuccessfully fighting back efforts at modesty. "I'm not aiming to prove anything, it's just a pleasure to play with some of the world's best ever players, especially coming from tiny Bermuda.'' A party of 16 are scheduled to play a total of 19 matches in a period of little more than a month, while taking in such cricket `crazed' locales as Sri Lanka (four matches), India (three), New Zealand (five), Australia (five) and England (two).

The tour party is set to comprise a potpourri of former Test and international stars, with six West Indians, two Indians, four English, two South Africans and one Pakistani along with Gibbons.

Names revealed by the Bermudian included West Indies natives Alvin Kallicharran, Collis King, Robert Haynes and Franklyn Rose, as well as prolific Indian batsman Sanjay Mandrekar. There is also a chance that former West Indies opening bat Desmond Haynes could be lured into the side.

Gibbons' baptism with a World Select came back in 1994, after being spotted by Kallicharran while performing for English Midlands club Halesowen.

The first venture took the local to India for three matches, where he got the chance to play in New Delhi before a crowd of some 53,000.

To follow were inclusions among a West Indies Select for a pair of benefit matches in England and an event-filled excursion to Pakistan as part of yet another World XI, where bricks were thrown onto the field by spectators in retaliation to young Pakistani opener Wasim Abbas being struck by a well placed bouncer from World Select fast bowler Atul Wassim.

Gibbons noted that such tours were far from `retirement parties' for the veteran players, emphasising that all remained "quite capable''.

"All of the players are still playing competitively, it's just that they're not involved in the Test arena,'' he explained.