The Independent Voice of West Indies Cricket
The West Indies cricketers, who will take part in next month's cricket World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya, will be officially sponsored for the six-week tournament.
The LNM Group, (Lakshmi N. Mithal), the second largest steel producing company in the world, are the official sponsors of the team to participate in the series which bowls off on February 9 in Cape Town, South Africa.
As previously reported by CaribbeanCricket.com, Ansa McAl's Carib Beer subsidiary will replace Busta as the new sponsors of the West Indies four-day tournament.
The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) announced the Trinidad-based Carib Beer had inked a five-year deal to become the Title Sponsor of the West Indies four-day first-class championship. It has now been renamed the Carib Beer Cricket Series.
Many were the surprised faces when the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) selectors announced the 13-man squad for the opening match of the 2003 regional tournament, a team that did not include Narsingh Deonarine.
After all, as recently as 1999, the 19-year-old left-hander was being mentioned in the same breath as Marlon Samuels and Ryan Hinds as future West Indies Test material.
Unlike some known critics, former Guyana and West Indies players Basil Butcher and Joe Solomon feel the West Indies have as good a chance as any of the so-called top teams of advancing to the Super-six stage of the ICC Cricket World Cup, which bowls off on February 9 in South Africa.
In exclusive interviews, both acknowledged that the bowling is the regional team's main problem with Solomon pointing out that a specialist spinner should have been included at the expense of a fast bowler while Butcher opined that either Neil McGarrell or Gareth Breese should have got the nod ahead of fast bowler Corey Collymore.
Gordon Greenidge will be the "technical" coach for the Bangladesh team in a short-term appointment leading up to the World Cup, BBC Sports reported.
The West Indies batting legend, who is now a senior West Indies team selector, had served Bangladesh's coach before being fired during the 1999 World Cup in England. Greenidge will be with the Bangladesh team as they tour Namibia up until the end of January.