Hard work by the Bermuda Cricket Board has spared the national team from a marathon 44-hour trek halfway across the globe for their ICC Intercontinental Cup trip to Namibia next month.

The preferred route for Clay Smith?s men to the Southern African nation was originally set to send the team to Windhoek via Dubai, a nearly two-day journey on four different flights.

The International Cricket Council, who are paying for the 16-man party to travel to the three-day tournament finals, were keen to send the team the circuitous route due to a tie-in they have with sponsors Emirate Airlines but the BCB wanted to avoid a repeat of the travel nightmares they suffered during their ICC Trophy campaign and put their foot down with the international governing body.

The team will now fly from Bermuda to London and then after 12-hour layover that will likely see them get afternoon hotel rooms, the team will then travel direct on Air Namibia to the African capital.

?We are much happier with the new route,? said BCB chief executive Neil Speight.

?We just want to get the team there as quickly as possible so they will be in the best possible shape for the two three-day cricket matches they may have to play.

?Our opponents Kenya will obviously have a straightforward journey so we are hoping to make the long trip as smooth as possible.

?It would have been like going from St. George?s to Dockyard via Challenger Banks and certainly not the best way to get there.

?Short of chartering a plane directly from Bermuda to the ground, this is the quickest way humanly possible to get the team out there ready to play.?

It is understood that due to a sponsorship deal between the ICC and Emirate Airlines, the cricket governing body try to fly teams on that airline where possible, which would have meant considerably extending the team?s journey.

Gus Logie?s men are no strangers to nightmare itineraries; they were stuck on a place in Greensboro for 17 hours on their way to London for the pre-ICC Trophy tour after their flight via Charlotte to London was diverted due to bad weather and when flying from London to Belfast, their one-hour hop turned into a 16-hour travelathon, after a cancelled and then diverted flight left the team manager bribing a coach driver to get them to their hotel.

?There was talk of going via Dubai and that is something we were not very happy with,? said coach Logie, whose side take on Kenya in the three-day semi-final after clinching their place last month in Canada with victories over the hosts and Cayman.

?We just want to get there as soon as possible and it looks like something better has been sorted out. It is a long flight and we are looking to limit the jet lag we suffer as much as possible.?

The team are schedule to arrive in Windhoek at 7.45 a.m. on Thursday, October 20 ahead of the campaign beginning on the Sunday.

If Bermuda fail to get past the currently coach-less Kenya to earn a place in the final against the winners of Ireland and UAE ? who of course will fly on the Emirates airline ? then provisional one-day games have been arranged against the Namibians ? ?to make sure we get as much cricket played as possible on such a long trip?.