Cup Match challengers Somerset Cricket Club will bid to wrest the coveted showpiece from St.George?s next month without the services of key all-rounder Saleem Mukuddem ? and possibly others.

The South African, who stormed on to the Cup Match scene in 2003 by eclipsing Charlie Marshall?s colt?s record with an unbeaten 106 at Wellington Oval, has notified club officials of his intent not to take part in this summer?s classic.

?My position, as has been indicated to the executive at Somerset Cricket Club, is to inform them that I will not be available for Cup Match,? Mukuddem confirmed yesterday.

?I have not kept this secret among my team-mates and if word on the street is that Saleem isn?t going to play in Cup Match, then that is true.?

Mukuddem has instead opted to put his adopted country before Cup Match and channel his energies and emphasis solely towards Bermuda?s upcoming ICC Intercontinental Cup and One-Day International (ODI) commitments in Toronto next month.

?I am not going to play and basically my rationale for that is that we (Bermuda) have these huge official One-Day International games coming up in Canada,? Mukuddem explained. ?And to prepare myself both physically and mentally for it I take the standpoint that Cup Match is extremely draining, mentally and physically.

?And to have that type of intense situation/circumstances before we go (to Toronto) would actually be detrimental to my preparations.?

In 2004 Mukuddem became only the seventh batsmen in Cup Match history to score two centuries in the classic and the first since Lloyd James in 1961 and ?62 to score back-to-back centuries along with Clay Smith.

Mukuddem?s batting average of 153.50 is currently the best in the annual classic while his unbeaten 160, achieved two years ago in Somerset, is the fourth highest individual score.

He also shares a fifth-wicket partnership record (129) with Janeiro Tucker, set in 2003 at Wellington Oval.

?You have got to put yourself in a position to do your best,? Mukuddem added. ?Technically the Somerset executive have received an e-mail and I have already spoken to them as well, and so they already know my decision is purely one of putting country before club.?

Somerset coach Winston Reid admitted Mukuddem?s all-round services would be missed when the challengers take to the pitch in the West End on August 3 and 4.

?For someone who has scored two centuries in Cup Match, certainly Saleem will be a miss,? he said. ?You don?t lose good players and then think and say that is not a blow, you always miss good players.

?However, you have to move on.?

Mukuddem?s unavailability might now cement either Rodney Trott or Malachi Jones? place in the home team?s Cup Match XI.

Meanwhile, it is also understood that national team members Kevin Hurdle and Irving Romaine are also contemplating not playing for Somerset in next month?s big match.

Hurdle is currently on a seven-week playing stint with Folkestone CC in the UK while Romaine departs for Antigua along with Mukuddem and the senior national squad today for the opening ceremony of the Stanford 20/20 Tournament. Hurdle and Romaine will also be key members of the squad in Canada during August.

National coach Gus Logie submitted a recommendation earlier this year suggesting that all national team fast bowlers be prohibited from participating in this summer?s Cup Match for fear of risking injury prior to August?s commitment in Toronto.

Logie told : ?What I stated before was only a recommendation and at this particular moment I cannot confirm whether or not it has been accepted by the Board?s executive.

?So at this time everything remains at is was.?

Mukuddem added: ?From my point, personally, as a contracted player of the Bermuda Cricket Board, nobody has come to me in an official capacity to say that I can or cannot play Cup Match.

?So my deduction is that it has been left up to the players to decide whether they want to play or not.?