Bermuda’s intriguing but not always glorious World Cup campaign should come to an end at the Queen’s Park Oval here in Port of Spain tomorrow when they play Bangladesh in this Caribbean island’s final tournament game.

But will it? Unbelievably Bermuda, the smallest country ever to qualify and the biggest outsiders in competition history, are mathematically still alive and in with a chance of qualifying for the next stage. Despite painful thrashings from both Sri Lanka and India in their opening two games, the door into the so-called Super Eights remains slightly open.

Sri Lanka’s 69-run defeat of India before a packed crowd at the Oval yesterday, among them the entire Bermuda team, means that India are almost certainly out and were Bermuda to beat Bangladesh by a huge margin tomorrow they could go through on superior run rate.

It’s highly unlikely, almost unthinkable, so much so that Bermuda coach Gus Logie won’t even entertain such wild optimism. What he wants, win or lose, is for the Island players to earn a measure of respect and bow out with their heads held high. And while Bangladesh, themselves considered cricket minnows until just a few years ago, are unlikely to forfeit such a golden opportunity to rewrite their own World Cup record book, tomorrow’s game was always expected to be one which Bermuda could make an impression.

A Bangladeshi side packed with players in their teens and early twenties, and lacking the international experience of their Asian neighbours, beat Bermuda by eight wickets in a friendly in Antigua last month.

But Island skipper Irving Romaine has already said this week he was quietly confident of giving the same side a much better run for their money second time around. And that confidence appeared to be shared by his team-mates as they soaked up the sun and the electric atmosphere generated by the fanatical followers of both India and Sri Lanka at the Oval yesterday.

This morning the players will be back at the ground for a final training session in the Oval nets and will likely learn later this evening just who coach Logie has selected for tomorrow’s World Cup hurrah. Only two players in the 15-man squad, back-up wicketkeeper Kwame Tucker and teenage pace bowler Stefan Kelly, have yet to make their World Cup debut and both are now poised to enjoy that experience with Logie hinting earlier in the week he wanted all 15 to be given a chance.

Should, as expected, Bermuda suffer a third defeat, or even pull off an upset win but still fail to advance on run rate, they will leave Trinidad and head back home next Wednesday.