IF, as the saying goes, "adversity introduces a man to himself", Bermuda's Under-19 World Cup team will be in for some life-changing experiences during their month-long trip to Asia.

The team's journey began with a 14-hour flight from New York to Dubai yesterday after spending Wednesday night in New York. With precious little rest after a 3.45 a.m. arrival in Mumbai, India the Bermuda youngsters will go through a training session later in the day ahead of their first of three warmup matches beginning this weekend.

All this before the team even arrives in Malaysia next weekend for the World Cup!

The culture and climate of India, where there are some 1.1 billion people, will be like nothing the youngsters have experienced before, but a rewarding experience nonetheless.

"We'll be staying at the India Academy, will train every day and have three matches," said coach Andre (Doc) Manders ahead of the team's departure this week.

"We will get some of the Indian players to bowl to us in the nets ¿ they'll have players training every day at the Academy ¿ so we can get used to different types of spin bowlers. India's and Malaysia's wickets play similar with a low bounce and are slow so that is why we are going to India, as well as to get used to the climate which is humid."

The Bermuda team suffered a couple of setbacks in the lead-up to the tournament with, first, Stefan Kelly then his replacement Lemar Richardson pulling out of the squad. School commitments in England robbed the country of Kelly's services, a big blow, Manders admits, while Richardson suffered an injury in training a week ago. McLaren Smith, who will travel to Antigua next week with the senior team for the Stanford 20/20 Tournament, will join up with the team in Malaysia in time for warm-up matches ahead of the first match against Bangladesh on February 18.

"We're just asking the guys to go out there and do their best and not to worry about the opposition," said Manders who knows from experience that anything is possible at this level.

It was back in 1979 that Manders helped Bermuda win the International Youth Tournament in Canada, beating England South in the semi-final before stopping Holland in the final. That Bermuda team was captain by Charlie Marshall ¿ still playing almost 30 years later ¿ and also contained the likes of the late Delby Borden and Kevin Ratteray, Dennis Wainwright Jr, Paul Pearce, Anthony Bailey, Anthony Edwards, Mark Trott and Perry Maybury whose nephew Gregory Maybury is the younger member of the World Cup team.

"It was so amazing that a small island like Bermuda won, but the difference in that team was we had an all-round team and everybody worked for each other," Manders recalls.

"That's what we're trying to get with this team ¿ to believe in themselves. We're telling them to go out there and enjoy it, play their hardest and you never know what can happen.

"I have mentioned it ('79 tournament) to some of the older guys and when we get in New York where we are overnighting we will have a one-on-one session with the players and I will mention it again that it can be done."

That tournament-winning feat was matched six years later on home soil when Darrin Lewis' team won the '85 tournament, beating Mike Atherton's England North at Somerset in the final. After that youth cricket went into a slump ¿ until last summer when the team captained by Rodney Trott qualified for the youth World Cup for the first time.

Now they will not only represent their country in Malaysia but also the Americas region.

"Let's go down there and represent the Americas and make the country and the region proud," said Manders who thinks the team is capable of pulling off a victory or two in Group D which also contains England and Ireland. He acknowledges that England will have some players with county experience and will be the favourites in the group.

"Stefan had been letting us know about some of the players who he knows from playing in England," said Manders. "We have been on the internet checking up on their players so we are doing our homework on the teams that we are playing.

"The main thing is keeping our players focused on the task at hand ¿ it's going to be tough," said Manders who will be accompanied in the coaching department by national coach Gus Logie, Clevie Wade, Arnold Manders and Terry Fray.

Manders credits the decision by the Board last year to have the Under-19s play as a team in the league, a move that drew criticism initially in some quarters.

"The Barbados tournament did us good and if we hadn't played in the league we would not have won that (Americas) tournament," Manders believes.

"We found out a lot of stuff that we wanted to do that we couldn't do while they were playing for their clubs. Some clubs were against the move but then they saw that it was working. I felt sorry for a team like Warwick because we took six or seven of their youngsters and depleted their team."

Manders points to captain and vice captain Rodney Trott and Malachi Jones, opening batsmen Chris Douglas and Terryn Fray and bowlers Kyle Hodsoll and Tamauri Trott, as some of the key players. Trott, Jones, Hodsoll and Tucker all travelled to Dubai with the senior team last year.

"We need somebody in the top four or five to bat through the innings in order to get a big total," said Manders who admits Kelly's batting in the middle order will be missed.

"We're looking for Rodney and Malachi to do a lot in this tournament, then we have Chris who is one of the better opening bats on the island. With Stefan not there a lot of responsibility is going to be on all the batsmen to bat long. Terryn Fray is one of the most patient bats and can bat right through."

If, as expected the conditions favour spin, the team is well served in that department where there is the captain, Tucker, Tre Govia and Douglas to provide the slow bowling.

Bermuda's three group matches are scheduled for February 18 (Bangladesh), 19 (England) and 21 (Ireland) with the top two teams from each of the four groups advancing to the Super League while the other teams play in the Plate competition.

The final is scheduled for Kuala Lumpur on March 2. As well as the 10 ICC full member countries the tournament will also involve the host country and five other qualifiers. Bermuda will be the Americas representatives.

"When we beat Canada in Canada (to qualify) the first thing their representative said was: 'Now that you're in the World Cup remember that you are representing the Americas region'," Manders recalled.

"So we have to do well for the Americas region, we want to make the Americas region look good. But the country comes first!"

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Groups (seeds in brackets)

Group A (to be based in Johor) ¿ Pakistan (1), Zimbabwe (8), New Zealand (9), Malaysia (16)

Group B (to be based in Kuala Lumpur) ¿ India (2), West Indies (7), South Africa (10), PNG (15)

Group C (to be based in Penang) ¿ Australia (3), Sri Lanka (6), Nepal (11), Namibia (14)

Group D (to be based in Kuala Lumpur) ¿ England (4), Bangladesh (5), Bermuda (12), Ireland (13)

Major dates

February 10 ¿ Teams arrives

February 11-14 ¿ Warm-up matches

February 15 ¿ Opening ceremony

February 17-22 ¿ First group stage

February 24-March 1 ¿ Super League and Plate competitions

March 2 ¿ Final