Bermuda?s under-15 national cricket squad will be travelling to the Cayman Islands this Sunday to defend their title at the Americas Regional Tournament.

Canada, USA and Cayman are also taking part in the International Cricket Council sponsored event, although The Bahamas and Argentina have communicated that they will not be sending their teams.

Head coach Grant Smith and assistant Lionel Tannock have assembled a squad of 15 players for the trip, having whittled down the list from its original number of between 45 and 60 boys when coaching clinics began in earnest last November.

And Smith, who has been in charge of the under 15s at national level for five years, is upbeat about Bermuda?s prospects of overcoming their regional adversaries once again.

?We have a very good array of talent to call upon,? he said.

?We?re defending champions and I?m pretty happy with the side we?ve got on offer. It is a good allround outfit, with plenty of batting, a couple of decent seam bowlers and three genuine allrounders. So if we get things right down there, I believe we will walk away as champions once again.?

Despite his optimism and the insistence that he still derives ?enormous pleasure? out of grooming the national team players of tomorrow, Smith did admit that he had become frustrated by the continued absence of a coherent cricket programme in the Island?s schools, arguing that there ?could be so much more talent out there that we are just not being given a chance to lay our hands on.?

?Cricket in schools has become non-existent in some instances and therein lies my primary frustration,? he said.

?They have let the game of cricket down by over-emphasising sports like basketball. Cricket is one of our two national sports and it is not being treated as such by many schools.?

Smith also said that he still did not believe the Bermuda Cricket Board were lobbying hard enough to persuade school principals to place greater emphasis on the sport in their athletic curriculum.

?Again the frustration is the BCB?s lack of meetings with school authorities and general pressure on them to make sure cricket is being played,? he said.

But this grievance withstanding, Smith said that he would continue to pour his efforts into coaching the youngsters who may one day grace the full senior side.

?We?ve done a lot of work with the guys we?ve picked,? he said.

?What we try to do is not alter their mindset, to try and convince them that they are now national team players and must train and behave as such. They can be a bit of a handful at times, but it gives me a real thrill to eventually see them go on and be successful for both club and country.?: M.Jones (capt) S.Bremar, C.Douglas, L.Richardson, K.Trott, T.Govia, M.Waldron, J.DeSilva, J.Woodley, K.Bashir, T.Tucker, M.Bassett, B.Lambert, J.Dickenson, L.Tannock

Head Coach: Grant Smith

Assistant coach: Lionel Tannock