Bermuda will not make an 11th hour bid for a place in this year's Red Stripe Bowl cricket competition in the Caribbean following the late withdrawal of both the United States and Canada.

The two countries earned the right to represent the region after finishing ahead of Bermuda in the ICC Trophy tournament in Canada this summer. The West Indies Cricket Board had opted this year to invite the top two from the ICC under a new format _ leaving Bermuda out in the cold just one year after their historic first-ever win in the competition, over Cayman Islands.

However, even if Bermuda had met the qualifying conditions in Canada the likelihood of them entering next month remained doubtful. Bermuda Cricket Board of Control president El James' position was that the Island would not consider paying what he considered an unreasonably high fee of $60,000 to register for the tournament, on top of air fare expenses.

Hearing of the USA and Canada's withdrawal, James' position remained unchanged.

"We are well aware of the fact that the United States and Canada had pulled out because of the cost and to be honest we are not that surprised. One thing we were always certain of was that it had become too costly for us and we wouldn't have entered under those conditions," said James.

The WICB, however, had never approached Bermuda about replacing the two countries and apparently have decided to proceed with the eight teams that have traditionally participated.

The Bowl will begin next Tuesday and will be contested in two zones, one taking place in Jamaica and the other in Guyana.

Jamaica's Zone A will include the host country, Northern Windwards, Trinidad and Tobago and Leewards while Zone B will have Antigua, Barbados, Guyana and Southern Windwards.

The finals will be played at Jamaica's Kaiser Sports Club on October 14.

A major change in the competition this year will see Antigua competing as a separate entity and not being included in the Leewards Islands. Another change sees the Windwards split into northern and southern teams.

BCBC secretary Charlotte Simons said yesterday that although Bermuda would not have entertained the idea of participating if asked, mainly because of the heavy cost, they were never invited evenafter the US and Canada withdrew.

And she revealed that the Island was only made aware of the situation during a recent visit here by the WICB regional director, Robert Weeks.

"But even had we got something from them, there would have been no chance of us going down there to participate," said Simons.

There are reports that the WICB intend to revamp the format next year and implement changes that will once again include teams from the Americas Region such as Bermuda, US, Canada, Cayman Islands and Argentina _ but it remains to be seen at what cost.

The BCBC have made it clear that while they would continue to get the senior national team involved in tournaments, their priority lies in development and James has insisted that the type of money the WICB wanted for the Bowl would be better spent on youngsters in the Island.

Meanwhile, the Board and national coach Mark Harper are preparing to finalise a squad to begin serious training for the Americas Regional tournament scheduled for Argentina next March.