No Guyanese in Windies World Cup squad

Jan 11, 2015 Sports

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Pollard, Dwayne Bravo also ignored

By Sean Devers

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) yesterday announced the squad for the 2015 Cricket World Cup scheduled from February 14 in Australia and New Zealand and there is no space for any Guyanese in the 15-man side.
While Guyanese Leon Johnson and Narsingh Deonarine are both in the West Indies one-day team in South Africa, they were both overlooked for the World Cup, while the established Trinidad & Tobago pair of former One-day Skipper Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard have both been dropped fueling speculation that the role they played in the recent abandoned tour to India played a part in them being sacked.
Ravi Rampaul and fellow Trinidadian Samuel Badree have not been considered due to injury.
Fast bowler Kemar Roach returns after suffering an injury in the three-Test series against South Africa, while Darren Bravo is also back after taking time off from the game to deal with some personal matters.
Off spinner Sunil Narine, who was reported during the last IPL for a suspect action, was left out of the South Africa series for fear of his action being reported by ICC officials and him being banned. He has been picked in the World Cup squad since even if he is reported during the World Cup he will be allowed to continue playing until the tournament concludes. Towering Bajan left-armer Sulieman Benn is the other specialist spinner in the squad.
Rookie all-rounder Jason Holder gets his first chance at Captaincy, taking over the one-day side from the elder Bravo while the in-form Marlon Samuels, reportedly the only member of the team to India who was against aborting that tour, has been appointed Vice-Captain. Test Captain Denish Ramdin is also in the squad.
The most experienced player in the squad is opener Chris Gayle with 258 appearances. Samuels (162), Ramdin (115) and Darren Sammy (115) all have over a hundred ODI games to their names, while opener Dwayne Smith (94) could join that list during the World Cup.
Jamaican soldier, left-arm pacer Sheldon Cottrell and Barbados Jonathan Carter are yet to play at the ODI level. Carter and Cottrell are both in the West Indies ODI squad to face South Africa in the upcoming ODI series.
Convenor of the Selection Panel Clive Lloyd, who has been making a lot of comments on West Indies cricket recently, said he has high hopes for the squad which is a competitive mix of experienced players and some fresh faces.
“I believe we have selected a very good team which will do West Indies proud at the World Cup. We have a good mixture of some good seasoned players and some good youngsters who will fly the West Indies flag in Australia and New Zealand,” Lloyd said.
“If they play to their potential I am quite sure we will do very well. I have really high hopes in this team – I believe they can do something special. We have the talent and if we can play to our potential we have a very good chance of lifting that trophy,” Lloyd said.
Lloyd said that the prestige of the Cricket World Cup offers a significant opportunity for the team to bring pride to the Caribbean region similar to the success of the West Indies team in the ICC World Twenty20 in 2012.
“This is a very prestigious world event, one of the biggest sporting events on the international calendar and it is a huge opportunity to create something historic and memorable for West Indies cricket and the people of the region,” Lloyd said.
West Indies play their opening match on February 16th against Ireland before facing Pakistan, Zimbabwe, South Africa, India and the United Arab Emirates.
The West Indies, under Lloyd, reached the first three Finals (1975, 1979 & 1983), winning the first two before suffering a shocking upset loss to India in the 1983 Final after being well place in their hunt of 183 all out in 54.4 overs in the 60-over contest.
However, after Viv Richards was magnificently caught by Skipper Kapil Dev off of Madan Lall for a top score of 33 at 57-3, the defending champions slumped to 140 all out to lose by 43 runs.
West Indies World Cup squad: Jason Holder (Captain), Marlon Samuels (Vice Captain), Sulieman Benn, Darren Bravo, Jonathan Carter, Sheldon Cottrell, Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine, Denesh Ramdin, Kemar Roach, Andre Russell, Darren Sammy, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Smith, Jerome Taylor
West Indies CWC Pool B Schedule
February 16 – West Indies v Ireland at Nelson
February 21 – West Indies v Pakistan at Christchurch
February 24 – West Indies v Zimbabwe at Canberra
February 27 – West Indies v South Africa at Sydney
March 6 – West Indies v India at Perth
March 15 – West Indies v UAE at Napier

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