BATTING, particularly with former captain Janeiro Tucker and Glenn Blakeney back in the fold, will be the strength of the Bermuda team in the buildup to the World Cup qualifying tournament in South Africa later this year.

However, there is still some flexibility in regards to the opening spots, coach Gus Logie revealed this week ahead of the team's month-long trip to the West Indies next week. It is during that trip, when the team will play about a dozen games, that the coach will look very carefully at the strength and weaknesses of the team.

The batting, particularly the top six, looks quite solid, said Logie, while revealing that Lionel Cann will again be looked at as the opening partner for Chris Douglas at the top of the order.

"We will still want to be flexible in that region, but I think the game has moved on in a lot of ways, with the new powerplay, (fielding restrictions early in a team's innings), choosing your own powerplays and the bowling powerplays," said Logie.

"We are still looking to be flexible in those situations which is what the game demands."

Cann led the Bermuda batting at the ICC Americas Division One Championships in Florida in November when he scored over 200 runs as an opener. Logie is keen to keep the veteran batsman in that position alongside Chris Douglas who had an exciting debut year in the Bermuda team last year.

"We tried a combination in Florida and at this point in time we want to continue it," said Logie. "We are going to try to stick to that combination, but we also reserve the right to be flexible."

The opening spots have been the team's Achilles heel since before the last qualifying tournament in 2005 in Ireland when OJ Pitcher and Delyone Borden were tried with mixed results.

Pitcher isn't likely to be involved with this year's qualifying campaign as he is in school abroad ¿ as is Malachi Jones ¿ while Borden is gradually becoming more of a bowling allrounder with his off spin seen as a compliment to the orthodox leg breaks of Dwayne Leverock. Borden, along with St. David's teammate seamer Justin Pitcher, another newcomer to the squad, adds some variety to the bowling as well as depth to the batting.

The top six or seven in the batting looks solid with the likes of Stephen Outerbridge, David Hemp, Irving Romaine, Janeiro Tucker and Glenn Blakeney (not necessarily in that order) following the openers. Logie is banking on Blakeney to fill the crucial number three spot.

"With his experience we used him at three and we will be looking for him as well to continue in that position, but as I said before we reserve the right to be flexible," said the coach who has in his mind who he sees as the top six.

"We have been blessed in the last few weeks to have people coming back into the setup ¿ it makes it a very tough top six, top seven. We are well served in that area and our spin department is also well served."

Again, the new ball attack is cause for some concern, with the absence of a couple of out-and-out pace bowlers.

"We have had the problem of genuine quick bowlers which we don't have but we do have a few medium-fast bowlers who we will be depending on," said Logie.

"We still have a few players out of the loop, people like Malachi in school and the situation with work-related issues with people like (Kevin) Hurdle. These are minuses, but we have unearthed a young Justin Pitcher who is doing pretty well at this point.

"With George (O'Brien) coming back we are working with him on his general fitness which has been a problem over the years. We are trying to get him as fit as possible because the competition will obviously be tough. Stefan Kelly is looked upon as one of the senior bowlers. We have a few younger players in the squad now and hopefully a few younger legs."

Since taking over as national coach in 2005, Logie has often been frustrated with not having a settled team, with players missing from one tour to the next for various reasons, not least school commitments, injuries and lack of commitment to training.

Now things seem to be looking up, despite the unfortunate situation which saw batsman Oronde Bascome lose his contract after missing a couple of training sessions. The matter of Lionel Cann's contract seems to be now been resolved amicably.

"At the end of the day we've got to work with what we have," said Logie. "I'm one of those individuals who has said time and time again that in spite of it we will certainly give it our best shot.

"It's not just about the ability of the players, you've got to get facilities to train when you want to train and that's going to be crucial. That's something we have always had headaches with in the past.

"With the weather conditions we are having now it is very difficult to do any kind of outdoor training so you are limited in the preparation. We are doing a lot of strength and conditioning work at the moment and whenever we can get a two-hour net session in the afternoon we get it. It's about making the best of what you have."

Logie doesn't expect the team to get to train on the nets at the National Sports Centre before they depart next week for the demanding tour that will see them play and train in Trinidad, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Grenada, playing about a dozen matches in all before returning on February 28.

"We are looking to take at least 17 or 18 players," said Logie. "We will spend nine days in Trinidad where we have four games lined up, then go to St. Lucia where we will have three games. In St. Vincent we will have a similar amount and Grenada a similar amount.

"I would like to think that we will see some improvement, people getting into the kinds of form that we expect. We have been encouraging players that 50s and 60s are not enough any more, that they have got to look to get hundreds and bat long. In last few months we have seen improvement in terms of our batting, we have batted out the 50 overs on many occasions, the last six or seven games, so that augers well."

Added Logie: "The spinners have been doing a yeoman service for us and we expect them to continue. The young fast bowlers are the ones we need to keep fit. There's no two ways about it, the batsmen and the spinners are our strength and we are hoping they can continue in that vein.

"The players have to be patient with themselves, it's not going to happen overnight. Some of them are coming back into the kind of rigorous training that we are doing and they are seeing the benefits of it. It is just about being patient with everything that we are doing. The process is in place and I have no doubt that it worked before and will work again."