Amid last night's glitzy Award of Matches Ceremony for the Cricket World Cup 2007, Bermuda remained in the dark about its part ? if any ? in the sport's showpiece event.

While Caribbean islands celebrated at having secured various prized fixtures for the spectacle, nothing was said about the role of Bermuda which was awarded warm-up matches and designated first alternate in case a first-round venue was unable to fulfil its obligations.

Speaking to from Montego Bay, Jamaica, where the announcement was made by a stellar cast of cricketing officialdom, it was obvious Sports Minister Dale Butler was perplexed not to learn which countries would be coming here for warm-up games. However, he remained diplomatic in his comments.

"We came here with a number of questions which we had answered. The responses to those will be given to Government," he said.

"We also came to hear the names of the teams that would be coming to Bermuda. That has not been announced (and)...we continue to await the resolution of that issue."

Also still uncertain was when the warm-up series would take place and if Bermuda would be a suitable location given the time of year. Butler said that since arriving in Jamaica on Monday he had heard a variety of dates, ranging from March to May, and was therefore unable to clarify this situation.

What is clear, however, is that, if the warm-up series is slated for February/March as has been otherwise stated, the Island's winter climate would most likely exclude it from staging practice matches.

"Their main concern is whether or not Bermuda is weather-friendly at that time. The countries that come to Bermuda would be most annoyed if they came to a cool climate and then had to come down here to a much hotter climate for the World Cup," noted the Minister frankly.

Regarding yesterday's deliberations with officials from cricket's world-governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC) and from the Cricket World Cup's Organising Committee, he said: "We had open and frank discussions this morning with two members of the ICC and two members from the 2007 Organising Committee ? Chris Dehring and Don Lockerbie ? and we attempted to clarify what it meant to be an alternate country.

"We had questions over profit sharing ? which all other countries also had ? and we were told that our letter by far was one of the milder ones.

"We had been led to be believe that, because we asked about profit sharing, was one of the reasons we didn't have a successful bid.....only to learn that just about every country asked about that and many asked in more vociferous terms."

On that matter, it was indicated that Bermuda would retain the revenue from ticket sales but "everything else ? things concerning major sponsors and television revenues ? is under advisement".

As for what the Island would be obligated to as the first alternate country, Butler explained Bermuda would be subject to the same type of deadlines and stringent conditions as the eight host venues.

"We must adhere to all deadlines. If you say you're going to do something by October 1 then you must have it done by then and they will be checking that it's done," he stressed.

The Minister also said nothing was indicated to support Premier Alex Scott's recent sentiments that some substantive World Cup hosts would be unable to live up to expectations and therefore Bermuda could end up hosting first round matches.

"We asked if all eight countries were still 100 percent ready and prepared to host matches and they said all eight were still gung-ho about 2007."

Butler revealed that the Island's four-member delegation ? including Neil Speight of the Bermuda Cricket Board, Director of Youth and Sport Tony Roberts and consultant Brian Hanlon ? would be submitting a detailed report to Government and "thereafter an announcement will be made as to where we stand".

"We will be taking further advice from the Government based on our report. I'm not at liberty to say anything further in that regard," he added.