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Trinidad and Tobago's Busta Cup cricketers, seeking to lock up second spot and a home tie in the semifinals, fly out for Anguilla this morning. But current West Indies captain and former national skipper Brian Lara will not be among them.

Lara, just back from a tumultuous tour of South Africa where his side lost the Test and One-day series by 5-0 and 6-1 margins respectively, has not made himself available for the match against the Leeward Islands which starts tomorrow.

According to chairman of the national selectors Rangy Nanan, Lara says he's still unfit.

The 29-year-old star batsman missed three of the seven One-day games because of a chipped bone in his right wrist. However, he did play in the final match of the series where he managed a mere nine runs.

Now in Antigua for a post-tour post mortem along with team manager Clive Lloyd and coach Malcolm Marshall, Lara will have his hands full over the next day or so.

But there is also a serious challenge facing his T&T colleagues.

The national side have made two changes for the game against a Leewards team strengthened by the return of wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs and middle-order batsman Keith Arthurton.

The pair will boost a Leewards team that lost their first three matches outright but rebounded in the last round with a 71-run win over Guyana.

While Lara will not be making this trip, however, two other players who have not yet made an appearance in the Busta Cup competition join the squad.

Daren Ganga, back from a fiery Test baptism in South Africa, will get the chance to regain his confidence in Anguilla. He comes in for opener Anil Balliram.

Orthodox left-arm spinner Ken Hazel has also earned a rare first-class call-up as replacement for left-arm wrist spinner Avidesh Samaroo.

Explaining the switch of spinners, Nanan said it was occasioned by a study of current trends.

``Based on records so far this season, left-arm orthodox spinners have done well. Winston Reid picked up ten wickets against us. We needed to have somebody going away from them (the Leewards batsmen).''

While hoping that the steady Hazel will quickly fall into a rhythm against the Leewards batsmen, T&T will also be hoping that their middle order clicks.

So far this season, three players, openers Dennis Rampersad (2) and Suruj Ragoonath (1), number four Phil Simmons (2) and number six Lincoln Roberts (1) have accounted for the team's six half-centuries. But with the exception of the opening match against Guyana, no two batsmen have reached the landmark in the same innings.

In the the outright defeat against Barbados at Kensington Oval, Ian Bishop's first loss in nine matches at the helm, Roberts got his highest regional score (75) out of a first day total of 141 after Bishop had won the toss and decided to bat.

Nanan acknowledged that ``one or two careless shots,'' not the Kensington Oval pitch, had resulted in T&T's sliding to 28 for 6 before Roberts's futile rescue attempt.

``We should be getting some more runs from (Richard) Smith,'' the chairman added.

``But at least they learned from watching,'' a hopeful Nanan told the Express.

``I don't know where the final will take place. But if we have to play them (Barbados) in the final, there are a couple things we would have learned.''

After Monday's comprehensive eight-wicket defeat by Barbados, Bishop will be hoping that everyone has learnt something and will be using it to come up to muster for this weekend's game where a significant psychological battle will be played out.