Three senior members of the Guyana Under-19 team were bumped
from their flight to Jamaica because of booking screw-ups by the
BWIA/LIAT airlines, according to a report in the Stabroek News.
Pacer Jeremiah Harris and leg spinner Lookeshwar Mahabeer, both
senior players in the team with previous national youth team
experience, along with debutant pacer Kwese Maltay missed the 11:30
a.m LIAT flight out of Guyana on Monday morning because there were
no seats available on the aircraft.
Jamaica's cricket selectors have named former West Indies
players, Franklyn Rose and Nehemiah Perry in a 36-man squad to
prepare for the Red Stripe Bowl limited overs tournament which
begins in mid-August.
Also back is the promising 21 year-old West Indies batsman, Marlon
Samuels, who, like the 30 year-old fastbowler, Rose, and the
34-year-old offspinner, Perry, has only recently recovered from
knee surgery.
West Indies fast bowler Mervyn Dillon is Trinidad and Tobago's
2002 Cricketer of the Year. The West Indies fast bowler received
the award from the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board of Control
which held its annual awards ceremony last Saturday.
Dillon, only the third Trinidadian bowler to take 100 Test wickets,
edged out world double record holder Brian Lara who scored 688 runs
in the West Indies' three-Test series aganst Sri Lanka late last
year. However, Lara was named among the country?s five senior
cricketers of the year. Named along with Dillon and Lara, were
Marlon Black, currently on West Indies 'A' team duty in England,
'A' team captain Daren Ganga and national batsman Imran Jan.
In what must be seen as an audition for the World Cup, fast
bowling all-rounder Vasbert Drakes has been named in a 20-man squad
to represent Barbados in next month's Red Stripe Bowl competition.
The 32-year-old Drakes, who appeared in five ODIs for the West
Indies during the 1994/95 home series against Australia, is a
bright star on the South Africa pro circuit but because of the
rigid eligibility requirements in the Caribbean, his international
career never took off.
There will be no Red Stripe Bowl cricket in Antigua this year,
thanks to high-stakes arm-twisting by beverage manufacturer Desnoes
& Geddes, the company that sponsors the regional one-day
tournament.
According to insiders, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) had
already confirmed a schedule to host the two zones of early-round
matches in Antigua and St Lucia but was told at the last minute by
D&G that one zone of the Red Stripe Bowl must be held in
Jamaica. The tournament starts on August 14.
