BERMUDA has sent a three-man team to the Men's World Team Squash Championships which started yesterday in India. And while the local squash players will certainly be up against it taking on the likes of hosts India, Pakistan and Kenya in their Group G, National Development coach Patrick Foster said this week that the experience will prove to be invaluable.

Flying the flag for Bermuda, are Chase Toogood, Mel Caines and Robert Maycock.

Yesterday proved to be tough for the Bermudians as they took on hosts India and lost all three matches.

Gaurav Nandrajog beat Maycock 11-3, 14-12, 11-8 while India's top player, Saurav Ghosal downed Toogood 11-3, 11-5, 11-4. Caines went down quickly to Siddharth Suchde 11-1, 11-2, 11-5.

Both Toogood and Caines played in the qualifying stages of the Endurance World Open which concluded last Saturday night at the Fairmont Southampton Hotel which saw world number one Amr Shabana take the title.

Both Toogood and Caines have been training hard for these World Team Championships at the courts in Devonshire while the youngster of the group, Maycock, has been playing regularly for his school in England. Foster, who has been Bermuda's National Development coach for nearly three years now, said: "Bermuda has competed in the past but not every time."

In past tournaments Bermuda pros Nick Kyme and James Stout have competed for the island but Foster said: "They were both unavailable for this one but the other guys really wanted to go and it will be a great experience for them.

"They have a tough group ¿ but quite honestly there really are no easy groups at all. Whatever group they ended up with they were going to come up against it. India have two players in the world's top 50 and Pakistan definitely have two in the top 50. Kenya are a bit unknown but they usually are pretty strong even though they are not always ranked on the world list. They always seem to have super fit guys who are very strong."

Bermuda's team is a mix of age and experience said Foster. "Chase is about 34 years old, Mel is about 30 and Robert is only 18 years old."

But all three have been training hard and by going to the World Team Championships it can only bode well for squash in Bermuda, said Foster.

"When we look at whole programme, starting off at grass roots, we want to give people targets to work towards. We always want to have a team in the highest level of world competition so these championships are something we would always like to send a team if we can. And it is great for the guys going.

"Over the last few months leading up to the Team World Championships, Chase and Mel have been training quite hard. Chase is now playing the best squash of his whole career. He has worked hard and has done well.

"Mel on the other hand has had a tough year with injuries. He was injured when we went to Jamaica in August when we went to play the Caribbean Team Championships but he has now fully recovered. But he is not quite where he wanted to be but at least he is not carrying injuries. I know however that he would have liked to have had better preparation.

"Robbie is playing a lot of tournaments in England and across Europe with his school group ¿ he has been doing very well. They have a large junior squash programme at his school and this is a great chance for him ¿ a chance that most young guys would not get."

While India took down Bermuda easily yesterday and it is expected that Pakistan will do the same, Foster said they did have a chance against Kenya. "We do not know a lot about their team but we have a chance there," he said.

Bermuda's team manager and coach is Denise Sommers.

At the championships, Bermuda's team will be seeing many of the players who were in Bermuda last week for the Endurance World Open.