A young West Indies Select team arrived yesterday evening primed and ready to take on the best that Bermuda has to offer in a six-game tour which gets underway tomorrow against a President's XI at Lord's at 11 a.m.

While the tour has been specifically designed as a build-up for Bermuda's ICC Trophy campaign in Kenya early next year, the Select's skipper Roland Holder of Barbados made it clear that every player in the West Indies squad has the incentive of trying to break into the full Test team in the future. For that reason the local crowds can expect some keen cricket from the tourists.

"Everybody on the team is certainly in with a chance of playing with the senior West Indies side if they play well on tours like this,'' said Holder, who himself is the leading contender for a place in the West Indies team for the tour of Sri Lanka and India later this year.

Team manager and former West Indies Test great Charlie Griffith said that he was aware of the capabilities of Bermuda after their tour to Barbados in March, and he felt his young side would be competitive during the six matches.

Five of the players, Holder, wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs, Nehemiah Perry, Robert Samuels and Sammy Skeete, played together in the 1988 West Indies World Youth cup team in Australia. Bermudians Kyle Lightbourne and Dean Minors played against them for the ICC combined team.

"It's a young team, one that is vibrant, strong and capable. I have seen all of them play in the past but they haven't played together in a while and we will have to wait and see what their capabilities really are,'' said Griffith.

"The purpose of the tour is to come here and give the Bermuda team some practice for the ICC tournament. We are coming to play some positive cricket and give the public their money's worth.'' Griffith does not feel that the demand of playing six matches in a 10-day period will be too much for the young West Indians, saying they are aware of the schedule and are looking forward to each fixture.

"They are young, vibrant, strong and very capable. The number of games they are playing will have no effect on them at all. They want to play, they have come all the way here to do exactly that and I don't foresee any difficulties at all,'' said Griffith.

Holder said that while the team is relatively young it still have great potential because of its depth.

"It's a solid all-round team with lots of depth in bowling and batting and there are a lot of all-rounders. Generally it is a very good all-round squad,'' said the skipper.

He said that everybody should gather experience from playing on the different type of wickets that exist in Bermuda and by doing so it will help in the further development of each player.

Holder's batting is something that local cricket enthusiasts will be watching out for and it looks like he has arrived in near-peak form.

"Our domestic season in Barbados has just started so we have been training all along. I just played last week,'' said Holder.

When asked whether he expected to be in top form from the opening game, he replied: "Well, form is always a temporary thing, but I am hoping to be at my best while here in Bermuda,'' he said.

WELCOME -- The West Indies Board Select arrived in Bermuda last night for their six match tour. Bermuda Cricket Board of Control president Ed Bailey welcomes manager Charlie Griffith with captain Roland Holder third from right.