"On all previous occasions we have played Davis Cup overseas and at home, the president or premier has attended the opening ceremony,'' said BLTA president David Lambert. "So there is a chance that President Castro will be there.'' Castro seized power in 1959 and has led Cuba's communist government ever since the revolution. But a lesser known fact about him is that he was an athlete of great prowess.

In fact, in 1944 Castro was voted national high school athlete of the year.

Whether he could win another national vote has not been put to the test lately.

*** DESPITE the best-laid plans of the BLTA, the journey of the Island's Davis Cup team and entourage threw up a couple of worrying moments.

The trip took the delegation via Toronto, Canada -- the detour necessary because there are no passenger flights between the US and Cuba.

After a short night's sleep in Toronto, most of the party dragged themselves out of bed at 3.00 a.m. on Saturday to ensure a good place in the check-in lines, swollen to frightening proportions by students and their families travelling during the Spring break.

Although the check-in desk for the LACSA airline didn't open until 4.45 a.m., the early start proved wise.

The BLTA thought they had reservations on flight LR623 to Havana. They did not.

A Canadian businessman, who frequently used the airline, laughed.

"They never give me a reservation and they're often overbooked,'' he said, adding extra comments unfit for publication.

The nightmare scenario was for someone to get left behind. Fortunately, that did not transpire, although one long-serving BLTA volunteer pushed her luck by getting up later than the others.

Officials had almost given up on her making it, before she strolled calmly into the departure lounge, oblivious to the mild panic which had gone on before.

*** THE arrival at Jose Marti International Airport provoked a few more missed heartbeats.

Visitors to Cuba require a tourist card and the BLTA party did not have one between them. Unwise, you might think, but the BLTA had received a fax earlier in the week from tournament organisers, assuring that visas would be waiting at the airport and there was no need to buy tourist cards.

Passport control officials were unimpressed, said there were no visas, and denied the group entry. For the next half-hour, they stood in the spartan surroundings of the arrivals hall, out-numbered two-to-one by security officers.

Then a robust official assured that a local tennis official would be along to sort out the mess in "cinco minutos''.

Fully 35 minutes later, he arrived.

And after more protacted negotiations and animated gesticulation, the Bermuda group were finally allowed through to find a guy with tired arms holding up a placard declaring: "Welcome to Bermuda's Davis Cup team.'' Character-building stuff, this travelling.