Bermuda skipper Irving Romaine and team-mates Lionel Cann and Janeiro Tucker were excused from training at the Sir Frank Worrell facility outside Trinidad yesterday — for good reason.

Instead the trio, along with players from the Bangladesh team, were whisked to a local secondary school in a visit arranged by UNICEF and UNAIDS, to give encouragement to young people often ignored in the AIDS battle.

Romaine said the players spent almost three hours with the children. “It was a terrific experience,” said the captain last night. “We handed the kids T-shirts and then we allowed them to conduct their own ‘press conference’ - they hit us with all kinds of questions.”

Meanwhile, last night several senior players were attending yet another function in the city after being invited by Cann to meet with his Trinidad-based sponsors.

Big-hitter Cann signed a deal last year with the Trinidad sports equipment company who now supply him with bats and other cricket gear.