Bermuda has thrown its hat into the ring as potential hosts of the International Cricket Council?s (ICC) latest innovation ? a Twenty20 World Championship.

The event has not yet been approved by the ICC but will be discussed at a full Board meeting in Dubai this March.

Twenty20 cricket is the newest craze to sweep the world game and has already been adopted with great success in English and Australian domestic cricket.

Several countries have now played full Twenty20 internationals and many of the ICC top brass remain convinced that this new and exciting format will help widen the game?s global appeal.

BCB chief executive Neil Speight revealed yesterday that all Associate members of the ICC had been invited by the world governing body to bid for a variety of upcoming events.

Speight said that some these ? such as the Under-19 World Cup and the ICC Trophy ? were too large for the Island?s limited infrastructure in terms of the number of grounds required.

But a Twenty20 World Championship would only need a maximum of two grounds and could easily be accommodated locally, Speight said.

The Island would also be big enough, according to Speight, to host the new World Cricket League Division One competition between Scotland, Ireland, Kenya, Canada, Holland and Bermuda ? scheduled for January next year.

?All the Associate members were invited by the ICC events selection panel a while back to at least express an interest in hosting some of the events which will be taking place in between now and 2015,? he said.

?We obviously recognise that the competitions which require a large number of grounds would be beyond us, so we have made the ICC aware of our desire to host either a Twenty20 World Championship or the World Cricket League Division One competition over the next few years.

?This may not come to much in the short term but it is important for us as a country and as a cricket board to show that we are keen and ambitious. This would be a major step for Bermuda.?

Australia, Bermuda, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and the West Indies have all indicated that they would like to host an inaugural Twenty20 event.

Bermuda is hosting its own Twenty20 event in April ? the World Cricket Classic ? which will feature some of the greatest players ever to have graced a cricket field.

The national team is also signed up to play in the $28 million Stanford Twenty20 tournament in the Caribbean this July.