preparing for what promises to be a busy summer.

More than 30 players who have been invited to compete for places on tours scheduled for Canada and the Caribbean after the Cup Match holidays will meet with Bermuda Cricket Board of Control executives and coaches to be appraised of the plans.

The team will tour Toronto, Canada from August 5-12 to play the host country in a tournament that has been revived after several years and afterwards will travel to the Caribbean to compete in the annual Red Stripe Bowl at a venue and date yet to be announced.

The bulk of the squad is expected to be made up of those players who represented Bermuda in the Red Stripe Bowl in Guyana last year. They and several others have been sent invitations to join the training squad.

But BCBC president El James was yesterday unwilling to release the names of any players, preferring first to meet with them to see who is available.

"We are in a preparatory mode right now, we want to prepare our national teams for the various commitments that we have for the year which involve two tours abroad,'' he said.

"At this stage the normal procedure is to talk with them and find out who is and who is not available and then we will have to appraise them about the rules and regulations that will be required if they were to join.'' The players will be informed about drug testing, something they must agree to without exception.

James explained that it was the Board's intention to abide by the policy that was adopted by Government over a year ago.

And his message to any players aspiring to make the squad this year was to be expected to obey the rules and regulations that are being laid down or withdraw their names.

"Those who don't want to be drug tested need not bother to show an interest in joining because drug testing is definitely part of our programme and I don't hesitate to stipulate that this is something that will apply in both the senior and junior national programmes,'' he said.

The early start to training means that Bermuda should be better prepared for the prestigious Red Stripe Bowl this year, having entered the last three somewhat hurriedly.

Last year's event saw Bermuda lose all three of their matches to Trinidad and Tobago, the Windward Islands and Guyana.

In their opener against Brian Lara's team they went down by seven wickets after the West Indies captain had been dropped twice in Trinidad's chase of Bermuda's modest total of 123.

Bermuda then lost to the Windward Islands by 67 runs, posting 154 in reply to the Windwards' 221. And finally Guyana hammered Bermuda by 152 runs after Bermuda were dismissed for just 83, spinner Ramnaresh Sarwan taking five for 10 in five overs.

James admitted that one of the Bermuda team's shortcomings in the tournament a year ago was the inability of the batsmen to master slow bowling.

El James: `Those who do not want to be drug-tested need not bother to show...'