A largely inexperienced Bermuda national cricket squad leave for a tour of Argentina today with the focus very much on preparing for future challenges.

Six members of the 15-man squad on the 11-day tour have been plucked from the Under-19 side and the series of five one-day internationals and two Twenty/20 games is supposedly designed to help the development of the country's up and coming players.

Led by veteran skipper Irving Romaine, the squad contains only seven players who represented the Island in last month's ICC Americas Championship in Florida where Bermuda failed to retain their title.

While primarily aimed at development, all the cricket that national coach Gus Logie's team play between now and next spring will be geared towards qualifying for the 2011 World Cup. Those qualifying matches will be played in South Africa in April.

Romaine is confident that if the younger players play to their potential in Argentina they will be breaking into the senior side sooner rather than later.

"It has been pretty good training with the Under-19 players and seeing where they are in their development," said Romaine.

"They have (World Cup) qualifiers coming up and it is nice to see their focus and this tour is really to see how they have matured as cricketers.

"Seeing which guys are ready to make the jump to the seniors is important now as some spots will become available soon.

"This will be a good tournament for them to get a run out in preparation for the qualifiers. So this is match fitness for them and they have been training for weeks now.

"If you look at the squad, the senior players are really the players who are contracted."

Now will be as good a time as any for the Under-19 players to showcase their talent, especially with a shortage of seamers in the senior ranks. And Romaine knows that now is the time to start bringing them along with many of the players who made the trip to the Americas Championship taking a rest.

"We are a bit short on seamers right now, so we will look at what their seamers have and batsmen as well and see if they can make it.

"These guys are maturing as seniors and this will be development for them moving up.

"Fatigue will not really play a factor for the senior guys that are on contract as we play and train every day, so this shouldn't be an issue.

"Hopefully in January, a few more guys will become contracted, plus the five in England, so we have a team that has been training and will be ready, both physically and mentally for the rigours of the qualification.

"There is no hangover from the Americas for the guys going to Argentina. When we went to Australia (academy), we got used to doing it every day, so we went through the tournament pretty much unscathed.

"For some of the other guys, playing cricket every day again took its toll like Lionel (Cann) and Glenn (Blakeney).

"But I think that the more we train, the more we get used to it."

Bermuda Cricket Board (BCB) have confirmed that due to educational commitments Terryn Fray has withdrawn from the squad to tour Argentina.

All-rounder and Under-15 national team player Joshua Gilbert has been selected to take his place.

Bermuda squad: Irving Romaine, Rodney Trott, Chris Douglas, Glenn Blakeney, Justin Pitcher, Kyle Hodsoll, Oronde Bascome, Tamauri Tucker, Delyone Borden, Jordan DeSilva, Joshua Gilbert, Kevon Fubler, Regino Smith, Machai Campbell, Fiqre Crockwell.