FA keen to put Beckham at the heart of 2018 World Cup bid

That, after all, is what this is really about.

Captain¿s jog? David James (centre) leads the England warm-up run, but will David Beckham lead out the team tomorrow?

The Football Association want to host the 2018 World Cup and a visit here now could be worth crucial votes in the future when this is the home of one of the game's most powerful men: the sometimes controversial, but hugely influential, CONCACAF president, Jack Warner.

Warner attended England's training session at the sun-drenched Hasely Crawford Stadium and witnessed the FA at their ambassadorial best.

They delivered Beckham to the thousands of fans who turned up to watch Fabio Capello's men in action, having already given Warner the chance to appear on the back page of the Trinidad Guardian yesterday morning shaking hands with the world's most famous footballer.

Presumably, and such presumptions have proved dangerous since Capello took charge, Beckham will be in the starting line-up.

As well as the other senior players who have made the trip - namely Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard, David James and Gareth Barry.

What Jack wants Jack normally gets in his own backyard. Exactly who will captain the side remains something of a mystery.

Capello will make the announcement today but the suggestion last night that it is unlikely to be Barry seemed to seriously limit the options when the England manager hinted on Wednesday night that it would be another 'new' name.

Given that Ferdinand and Gerrard have already had an audition along with John Terry, Capello might well opt for Beckham? It would certainly be a vote winner with the locals. The players appear to have no idea.

"We've got about as much chance of knowing what he is thinking as you have," declared Dean Ashton, who probably thought he was starting against the U.S.A. on Wednesday until Capello read out the team a few hours before kick-off.

After that he must have considered himself a certainty to come off the bench. But on the bench he remained, still untried and still uncapped.

Maybe his chance will finally come tomorrow night, given that Wayne Rooney is among those who were told they did not have to come and Michael Owen is absent without injury.

It seems daft not to at least give the West Ham striker a go, perhaps with someone possessing pace: Gabriel Agbonlahor, Theo Walcott, maybe even Jermain Defoe.

With seven of the nine England players involved in last week's Champions League Final not here, it seems crazy not to have a proper look at some of that young raw talent.

Let's see if Walcott can provide an exciting alternative to Beckham on the right. Let's give Ashley Young the opportunity to impress on the left.

Let's try to establish whether Joe Hart has a future as an international goalkeeper - if not from the start then certainly from the start of the second half.

Trinidad will be far from their best tomorrow night. Warner is in dispute with Trinidad and Tobago's senior players - over bonuses for the last World Cup - and as a result a number of them are missing for this friendly.

Now, surely, is the time for Capello to experiment and perhaps discover something he wants to revisit come the start of next season and the beginning of the World Cup campaign.

Ashton is desperate to demonstrate to Capello that he is the man who can get the best out of Rooney, even in Rooney's absence.

"I like to think that I play for the team and for another striker who plays with me," he said. "I like to provide as well as score goals for myself."

He makes a good case for himself, delivering what is probably a well-rehearsed response to the accusation that he lacks pace.

"I don't think Teddy Sheringham had electric pace," he said. "The pace I have is in my brain and in the way I play. That's my game and hopefully that's enough.

"To be honest, I'm not particularly slow. Obviously I'm not as quick as Agbonlahor and players like that, but there are quite a few of them about.

"I believe there's a huge space for the big striker like me, or Emile Heskey and Peter Crouch. I think it's vital that there are players like us and I feel I'm good enough to be able to step up to international level and be very successful.

"I certainly don't accept that there is not much talent behind Rooney and Owen. I think there is. I think I'm part of a group who are more than capable of performing at this level."

For Ashton, the wait has been a long one. He might well have played in Steve McClaren's first game back in August 2006 but a broken ankle in training on the eve of the match denied him the chance and it is only now that he is within touching distance of securing that first cap.

"It has been two very difficult years," he said. "Gutting really. But it's brilliant to be back in the squad because there were a few people who didn't think I was going to get back to the player I was after what was a bad injury.

"Now I just want the chance to show that I'm good enough to be here."

As do so many others who are here to win Capello's, rather than Warner's, vote.