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It's great to be back with the national squad and I can't wait to get out to Canada for the tri-series next week.

Things have settled down for me, personally, and I've been wanting to get back with the squad for a while now.

I had a man-to-man talk with the coach this morning and he told me what is expected of me and then we got straight down to business with a good training session.

I know I'm a senior player and I have to be a role model to the younger guys. I'm confident I can make a difference to the team and hopefully help us do well against Canada and the West Indies.

Our goal has to be to beat Canada and reach the final. It's great to play against sides like the West Indies. In any sport you want to test yourself against the best and they have some of the most talented cricketers in the world.

But we can't expect to beat a side like that. To bat through 50 overs and have a few players perform well would be a great achievement.

Our long term goal has to be to at least make the top six in the World Cup qualifier in Dubai next year and to keep our ODI status.

That keeps us in line to host one-day-series and things like that if the ground improvements continue.

Everything else is build-up to Dubai.

We had a good tour against Canada last time. We've had a couple of disappointing results since then, but that's cricket.

We fly out on Sunday and then we are straight into it against Canada on Monday. If we beat them we know we will be in the final later in the week, regardless of the result against West Indies.

For me, the key against the West Indies is to remember that they are just 11 cricketers like us.

Personally I never get phased by playing against big stars. They're just players and anyone on any given day can score a hundred against them.

Some people have made an issue of the fact that I wanted to be captain of the squad.

Yes, I put my name out there to be skipper but that was never the issue as far as my taking a break from the national team was concerned.

After every tour you re-assess and positions are up for grabs. I just let it be known that I would like to be considered. It wasn't an issue.

I told Irving about it and he understood. There was never any friction between us or between me and any of the players. They are happy to have me back - as the joker in the team and everything else.

I respect Irving and I'm happy to play for him. I'll play my hardest for whoever is captain of Bermuda.[[In-content Ad]]

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