Sri Lanka to go all out v debutants Bermuda

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, Mar 14 (Reuters) Sri Lankan paceman Chaminda Vaas and spinner Muttiah Muralitharan will be out to torment hapless World Cup debutants Bermuda in tomorrow's opening Group B tie.

Muralitharan and Vaas, both members of the victorious 1996 squad, were rested during last month's 2-1 series defeat in India and were looking for practice, coach Tom Moody told reporters at the Queen's Park Oval today.

''It is another game of cricket regardless of the opponent.

We'll be going very hard into this match like we would do any other match in this competition.'' India, the 1983 winners, and Bangladesh are also in the group.

Bermuda were routed for 45 in their warm-up game defeat against England.

''We saw them get tumbled out against England,'' Moody said.

''But if they have their day and we have a poor day we could be licking our wounds. We want to make sure that doesn't happen tomorrow.'' Bermuda skipper Irvine Romaine and West Indian coach Gus Logie were desperate to calm the nerves of the players ahead of their nation's biggest sporting moment.

''It's a big, big occasion,'' Romaine said. ''It's a milestone in Bermuda cricket and we're just enjoying every moment of it.

''I don't think we'll get too much work done on the islands (in Bermuda) when the game starts tomorrow,'' he said. ''Hopefully it will last the full length of the work day!'' Bermuda's only bright spark so far has been provided by policeman Dwayne Leverock, who has drawn attention because of his size and impressive left-arm spin.

''We've seen already in the two warm-up games we've played, one of our players as you know is larger than life,'' Logie said.

''The fact of the matter is that he's bowled pretty well.

''If he can do that again over the next few days, I'm sure the world is going to be talking about him again.'' Reuters DH VP0200