A day after hosts Somerset Cricket Club announced exciting plans for Cup Match which included more viewing plots and live television coverage comes the news that as many as 11 players from last year could be miss the annual classic.

Bermuda's ICC 20/20 World Cup qualifier in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which is to begin the day after Cup Match, has forced the island's top players to choose between country and Cup Match, the country's biggest sporting event. Nine have opted to represent their country, leaving the two Cup Match clubs several spots to fill.

Both teams will be without last year's opening batsmen as Chris Foggo and Oronde Bascome of St. George's and Somerset's Stephen Outerbridge and Jekon Edness will be traveling with the Bermuda team. The west enders will also be without top spinner Dwayne Leverock who is also in the Bermuda squad, while St. George's have six players on international duty.

James Celestine, a colt last year, is in the Bermuda squad along with OJ Pitcher (who would have been Cup Match's MVP last year for his knock of 94 had the clubs chosen one), Rodney Trott and George O'Brien. Somerset are also likely to be missing Dean Stephens and Dereck Brangman who have not played for their club team, Devonshire Rec., this season.

Irving Romaine will captain the Bermuda team in Ireland. English county player David Hemp is included along with young bowlers Stefan Kelly, who played against Scotland last weekend, Tamauri Tucker and Kyle Hodsoll.

National coach Gus Logie is pleased with the makeup of the touring squad which again contains a number of promising youngsters. "This new-look squad that exhibited a good, fighting attitude and approach during our tour of Canada and the game against Scotland is now looking forward to yet another opportunity to further enhance its growing reputation as we challenge ourselves to continue maturing on the world stage," said Logie.

"The development of our young players and the transition of many of the under 19 players into the senior national team is a heartwarming experience and I look forward to their continued improvement at the international level. In our Intercontinental Cup game we had eight players that were 25 or younger so the national programme definitely has a silver lining."

Six teams will compete in Ireland, with Bermuda paired with Ireland and Scotland in Group A while Kenya, Netherlands and Canada make up Group B for qualifying matches that will be held from August 2-5. Three Associate countries will qualify for the 20/20 World Cup in England in 2009.

Bermuda squad for Ireland: Irving Romaine (captain), Rodney Trott (vice captain), David Hemp, Stephen Outerbridge, Jekon Edness, Stefan Kelly, OJ Pitcher, Dwayne Leverock, James Celestine, Tamauri Tucker, George O'Brien, Oronde Bascome, Kyle Hodsoll, Chris Foggo. Reserves: Dennico Hollis, McLaren Smith, Jason Anderson.

EASTERN COUNTIES

National team allrounder Rodney Trott, 20, will captain Bailey's Bay for the first time in the Eastern Counties when they travel to Lord's tomorrow to meet St. David's in the first round.

Trott will captain a Bay team containing two colts and the returning Corey Hill and Glenn Blakeney as the challengers have decided against selecting 'guest' players Charlie Marshall and Jahmeiko Marshall of Social Club.

Instead the former champions, who named three colts last year, will give county debuts to two more, Brendon Trott, a left-handed batsman and allrounder Jonathan Allen. Tre Govia, one of three colts last year, in unavailable as he is in Barbados with the Under 18 team.

Bay will rely heavily on the experience of Stephen Outerbridge, Blakeney, Bermuda captain Irving Romaine, Cal Dill, Corey Hill and Dennis Trott for the bulk of their runs while Hill will also be a key man in the bowling attack as the team's top allrounder.

"I'm very satisfied with it (team), we thought to bring in a few guest players but at the end of the night we felt the team is strong enough to beat St. David's," said in-form Outerbridge who is looking to build on his century for Bermuda last weekend against Scotland.

"The young guys have committed themselves to Bailey's Bay's cricket programme and have been rewarded. In a way we're still in a rebuilding phase, we have probably lost the most players in the last two to three years. But we have seven players in the national team and the under 19s and playing leading roles, so eventually Bailey's Bay will be a dominant force again."

Outerbridge added: "You have to have certain things in place for that to happen. I have faith in the players that they will perform on the day. It's always a big game between us, even in league cricket. Counties is a special occasion and special moments will happen on Saturday, let's hope those moments happen in our favour."

Bailey's Bay team: Rodney Trott (captain), Stephen Outerbridge, Irving Romaine, Glenn Blakeney, Cal Dill, Corey Hill, Dennis Trott, Tywaun Burgess, Kearon Trott, Brendon Trott (colt), Jonathan Allen (colt).

St. David's selected their team last night and they, too, had the issue of 'guest' players to consider following the departure from the league team of the likes of Fiqre Crockwell, Sammy Robinson and George O'Brien at the beginning of the season. Clay Smith, the Cleveland player-coach, whose century last season helped lead Bay to a seven-wicket win over Bay, was expected to be retained.

"It's going to be a real headache," said St. David's coach George Cannonier earlier in the week. "All those who are eligible have been invited to train and will be looked at for selection."