Bermuda captain Irving Romaine insisted his side deserved their place at the Cricket World Cup despite losing their opening warm-up match against England by the huge margin of 241 runs.

Romaine's men, one of five associate or junior nations taking part in the World Cup, were bowled out for 45 inside 23 overs after holding England to 286 for eight.

"Half the time we've done well," said Romaine, who was unable to bat because of concussion sustained while fielding.

"You can't overlook the fact that we did field well. We just didn't bat as well as we should have and we have the chance to bat better than we did," he also told reporters after Monday's match, the first representative fixture between Bermuda and England."

Critics have accused the International Cricket Council (ICC) of including too many associate teams which, they argue, has the double negative of making the World Cup too long at seven weeks and creating too many mismatches.

However, minnows Ireland's performance in losing only by 35 runs to world ranked number one outfit South Africa on Monday, was a shot in the arm for the non-Test teams at the World Cup.

Romaine, speaking before that match had finished, said: "People say the associates shouldn't be here but, realistically, this is the only thing they can dream for, a chance to play against these guys. The rules were made and we qualified."

England captain Michael Vaughan added: "It's hard to know how a team like Bermuda will go in the World Cup but their left-arm spinner bowled very well."

Giant left-armer Dwayne Leverock was the pick of the Bermuda attack with an impressive two for 32 from his 10 overs.

England were 186 for six in the 36th over and it needed a composed 76 from all-rounder Jamie Dalrymple to take them in sight of 300.

The 35-year-old Leverock, who weighs in at 19 stone 4lbs, dismissed Paul Collingwood and Kevin Pietersen.

"I just try to bowl a steady line," said Leverock, a member of Bermuda's police force.

"The wicket gave me some turn and bounce," explained the former hurdler, who added of his size: "I'm 270 lbs. I used to be bigger but I lost weight for the tournament."

And with many of the pitches in the competition only recently laid, Leverock said he expected spinners to feature heavily in this World Cup.

"They should play a large part in this tournament. The wickets will be turning a lot."

Such pitches can make strokeplay difficult and Romaine said: "On the replays it looked like the batsmen were playing big shots before they were in and you can't do that against England.

"A couple of the players talked about the lack of pace in the pitch. The ball wasn't coming on as quick as they thought it would and that's why they got caught at mid-on.

"At this level you can't bat stupid. If we'd stayed and tried to bat the 50 overs out rather than rushing we could have posted a good total on the board."

Romaine was a frustrated observer during a collapse where only David Hemp, who plays for English county Glamorgan, reached double figures with 11 after injuring himself catching Ian Bell.

"When I took the catch, I hit my head on the ground and my vision was blurred in my right eye.

"The physio passed it on to the ICC doctors and they declared I couldn't go back to play. They said they would come back to the hotel tonight to see if I could train tomorrow (Tuesday). I had concussion and whiplash in my neck."

Bermuda's second and final warm-up match is against Zimbabwe on Thursday. "Today the plan was to field first and it worked. Maybe next time we will win the toss and bat and put a really big score on the board," said Romaine.

(Article: Copyright © 2007 AFP)