Bermuda?s national cricket team are set to jet off to Dubai next month as they continue their ambitious World Cup preparations.

Although dates and venues have not yet been confirmed, understands the national side will play five one-day games against the United Arab Emirates side towards the end of January as part of a nine-day tour.

It will be the first cricketing action of the year for Gus Logie?s side who can expect to rack up plenty more airmiles over the coming months ahead of the World Cup in the West Indies in 2007.

The national team?s training session has been anything but lackadaisical, with players training three times a week since mid-November, mostly on fitness work, although it is known that Logie has also been organising specific one-to-one training with individuals to work on technique, often meeting the players at lunchtimes for the sessions.

More cricket work will be introduced into the training regime closer to the tournament but management are confident the side will make the long trek to the Arab state in great shape to compete with one of the stronger Associate nations.

There will be some notable absentees, however, from the touring side with skipper Clay Smith out with surgery and Delyone Borden and OJ Pitcher still likely to be unavailable due to school commitments.

It is understood the Bermuda Cricket Board will be approaching schoolboy star Stefan Kelly to check on his availability while David Hemp, the Bermuda-born county star, will definitely not be involved.

As UAE failed to qualify for the World Cup, the matches will not be official One Day Internationals and given their ?friendly? status, Hemp would be eligible to play, however he is still working on earning his 100 days cricket work residency qualifications to become eligible for some of the other ICC competitions and time playing cricket abroad, even for his ?new? country, does not count towards that total.

Even though the team will be playing a punishing five games in seven days ? simulating the intensity of the World Cup competition ? a travelling party of only 14 is expected to be selected.

This will be the first cricket the side have played since their trip to Namibia for the Intercontinental Cup semi-finals where they went down to Kenya in a losing draw ? UAE were beaten comfortably by eventual winners Ireland ? before losing in controversial circumstances to the host country in two ?friendly? matches which were anything but.

There are expected to be plenty of changes to the squad for this trip with Smith definitely out and other players, such as Kevin Tucker and Curtis Jackson, unlikely to be selected again after poor performances.

The four players who are just completing their training at the ICC Winter Training Camp in Pretoria ? Jekon Edness, Stephen Outerbridge, Azeem Pitcher and Jim West ? will be back from South Africa and are likely to all be available for selection.

As well as this proposed trip, details of which are expected to be confirmed in the New Year, the national side are also expected to travel to Canada on at least two or three occasions as well as the same number of trips to Africa for Americas Cup and ICC Intercontinental Cup games as part of the preparations for the 2007 World Cup. There will also be at least three trips to the Caribbean, including competing in a multi-million dollar 20-20 tournament in Antigua in July.

On the homefront, Bermuda will entertain India in April as well as host regional tournament play and the 20-20 World Cricket Classic in the final week of April next year.