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Bermuda will attempt to defend their Americas title next week with just two seam bowlers in the squad.

With George O'Brien and Kevin Hurdle - described by skipper Irving Romaine as the quickest bowlers in the region - unavailable for selection and youngster Kyle Hodsoll injured, the pace bowling will be left to Stefan Kelly and Justin Pitcher.

An injury to either of those two players in the five-match tournament would mean Bermuda would have to revert to an almost total spin attack - with Dwayne Leverock the likeliest candidate to open the bowling.

The lack of seamers in the squad is a major concern for Logie's men, with fielding restrictions in the first 15 overs making life difficult early on for slow bowlers.

Romaine admitted he would have liked to have had more pace at his disposal and was hoping for slow, turning pitches that would suit his four-pronged spin attack when the tournament begins in Fort Lauderdale next week.

"We are still short on seamers. We are looking at Stefan Kelly and Justin Pitcher, that's basically it.

"Stephen (Outerbridge) is going to have to bowl a few, Lionel Cann will probably bowl a couple, but if the wickets are taking seam we don't have too many options.

"George and Kevin are probably the two fastest bowlers in the Americas so it's disappointing not to have them available.

"We don't know how the pitches are going to play out there but hopefully they'll take spin because we have a very strong slow bowling attack. There's a couple of artificial wickets and a new stadium so it's anybody's guess how they will play."

Leverock, Rodney Trott, Tamauri Tucker and Delyone Borden form Bermuda's slow-bowling attack for the Championships, which start on November 25.

Tucker and Trott just returned from a six-week training camp in Australia along with Romaine, Hodsoll, Oronde Bascome and Chris Douglas.

"We had four games in the last week we were there, so we've got a lot of match practice.

"The other guys don't have so much but they are mature players and they should adjust pretty quickly."

The skipper is expecting a tough tournament, despite the fact that Canada is the only other ODI ranked team in the Americas.

"It's an important tournament. Everybody wants bragging rights in the region and all those other countries think they should be up there instead of us.

"Everybody wants a piece of us. We play Canada over and over - that's always a good derby - but the others are gunning for us too.

"They all want to beat us so they can be the top dogs. Cayman is improving and USA are always a strong opponent."



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