Janeiro Tucker says he is “humbled” to have played a prominent role in the official opening of the new pavilion stand at the Param Veer Cricket Academy in India yesterday.

The Bermuda assistant coach and former national team all-rounder was tasked with the traditional ribbon-cutting duties at the ceremony, an honour which caught him completely by surprise.

“It was very humbling to be asked to do such a thing to open up a new stand at Sanjay Farm,” Tucker told The Royal Gazette.

“I was very surprised but I feel very respected in doing such a thing.

“I appreciate the people of India in Sanjay Farm to allow me to do this. I am sure there are millions of people here who could have done this, but me being chosen is a very humbling experience.”

The former Bermuda captain is an assistant coach for the national team, who are in India for a training camp in preparation for the ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League play-off in Malaysia this month.

The island’s preparations suffered a setback this week when captain Delray Rawlins, Tre Manders, Chris Douglas, Allan Douglas Jr, Derrick Brangman and Zeko Burgess were unable to secure visas to enter India for the pre-tournament training camp.

Arrangements are now being made for the six players to travel to Malaysia next week, arriving a few days before the rest of the team and it was suggested that Tucker could potentially come out of retirement to play in the scheduled matches at the training camp.

However Tucker, who represented Bermuda at the 2007 World Cup and played in 26 one-day internationals, scoring 496 runs with a high score of 52 and taking 13 wickets with his right-arm seam, is content to stay on the sidelines alongside head coach Cal Waldron

“I will not be playing here at all as my time as a player is done and dusted,” Tucker said. “We will have some of the Sanjay Farm Academy players involved in helping us out.

“It's not a good start being here without our quality players, but the show goes on and the players have worked hard so far. We stand a good chance as long as we do the right things.”

In Malaysia, Bermuda will come up against Italy in their opening group A match on February 22 before taking on Saudi Arabia on February 25 and Kuwait on February 26.

Bermuda and Italy are the firm favourites to reach the Super Six stage, from which the top four finishers will qualify for the next cycle of the Challenge League, which will feature 12 teams.

The national cricket team were relegated to the bottom rung of qualifying after finishing winless from 15 matches spread across a three-year cycle.