The champions of Caribbean cricket ? Barbados ? will be back in Bermuda this summer.

Somerset Cricket Club official Anthony Bailey has confirmed negotiations are in progress with the Barbados national team ? who swept a four-match series here last September ? to return to the Island around the same time this year.

Somerset, who are again organising the tour, wish to remain tight-lipped on details until they receive the Barbados Cricket Association?s (BCA) blessing to proceed.

Also, in an attempt to prevent a repeat of last year?s embarrassing situation where several national players declined to compete against Barbados, Somerset is working closely with the Bermuda Cricket Board (BCB).

As a result, the BCB?s 2004 cricket schedule has a week-long period from September 4 to 9 allocated to the Barbadians? visit.

?We?ve requested those dates and have blocked them off so that?s been built into their schedule. The expectation is yes that Barbados will be coming,? said Bailey.

?We?re organising things and more details will be forthcoming as soon as we confirm a few matters.?

BCB President Reggie Pearman too is looking forward to a successful tour by the Bajans who retained their Carib Beer Cup and Carib International Challenge titles versus regional rivals earlier this year.

?I believe the tour will come off. The guys are looking forward to coming from Barbados and hopefully we can have a better tour than we did last year,? he said.?

?Our guys are keen to play and, if we get through the Inter-Continental Cup and Americas Cup, it would give us a chance to get some good competition.?

Members of the Bermuda Cricket Umpires Association failed to show up for Saturday's Central Counties Cup first round tie, but Randy Butler insist that his organisation is not to blame.

?Don't blame us, nobody informed us about a game being played in the Central Counties on Saturday,? said the BCUA secretary.

The game was the season opener in the competition with Police entertaining Social Club at Police field.

?I don't know what happened, all I can say is that no umpire showed up,? said a surprised and disappointed Social Club skipper Charlie Marshall.

According to Butler, there has been little information about the Central Counties and pointed out that no dates for the competition had been included on the Bermuda Cricket Board's schedule for the season.

Board official Neil Speight could not be reached for comment yesterday.