ST. JOHN’S, Antigua-THE West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has named a 15-man squad for the February 4-23 limited overs tour of Australia, though several of the region’s top players will not be on the team due to injury.
The squad will be lead by Chris Gayle and will feature Vice Captain Dwayne Bravo, Narsingh Deonarine, Travis Dowlin, Runako Morton, Nikita Miller, Brendan Nash, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Darren Sammy, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Smith and Gavin Tonge.
A release from the WICB noted that a number of players, including Daren Bravo, Adrian Barath, Sulieman Benn, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Fidel Edwards, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Jerome Taylor, were unavailable for selection due to injury.
Chairman of the selectors Clyde Butts said that the substitutions for injured players should give a chance for other top players in the region to prove themselves once again at the international level.
“We are missing some key players due to injuries, but this is an opportunity for other players to re-establish themselves. Dwayne Smith and Kieron Pollard have been a bit disappointing in the past, but they have displayed the ability to perform on the Twenty/20 stage, and we think they will be major assets in the squad.”
He also said that the recent Test series against Australia, even though it was lost 2-0, helped to boost the confidence of the players and West Indies fans alike because it showed that the team could unite and compete against the best teams in the world after last year’s administrative disputes.
“We believe the team will do very well in Australia in the 50-over format as well as the T20 Internationals. Before we went to Australia for the Test matches the team was not given a chance by many people, but we saw how well they bounced back after the first Test and challenged the Aussies in Adelaide and Perth,” Butts said.
The news of the team is especially timely for Nevisian Runako Morton, whose batting has been excellent thus far in the WICB Regional 4-Day competition, having returned a century and two half-centuries from his four times at bat for the Leeward Islands.
While in Australia, the squad will play five One Day Internationals and two Twenty20 matches.
Butts stated that the series is likely to help prepare West Indies for a busy 2010, which will see them competing in home series matches against Zimbabwe and South Africa, as well as the much anticipated ICC World Twenty20 tournament in April and May.
