The Independent Voice of West Indies Cricket
West Indies cricket captain Brian Lara has been ruled out of the T&T team which will participate in Regional Limited Overs Championships later this month in Guyana and Barbados.
This was revealed by Dudnath Ramkessoon, chairman of the senior national selection panel, who that Lara was advised by the West Indies Cricket Board?s medical officer in T&T, Dr Terry Ali, to rest.
Despite being excluded from last Sunday's El Dorado inter-county one-day final between Demerara and Berbice, experienced leg-spinning all-rounder Mahendra agamootoo has been given another lease on his cricketing career by Guyana's national selectors.
The controversial Nagamootoo was axed by the Berbice selectors after participating in the first two round-robin preliminary matches against Essequibo and Demerara played at the Blairmont and Wales ground respectively.
Marlon Samuels, the talented but out-of-favour West Indian batsman, has been included in Jamaica's 14-man squad for the upcoming regional one day tournament which gets underway in Guyana on 16 October. Samuels is joined in the Gareth Breese-led squad by other West Indies players Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds and Carlton Baugh Jr.
There are five newcomers in the squad, which is expected to challenge strongly for the one day title this year. Tamar Lambert makes his one day debut, after being the leading Jamaican run scorer in his first season of the four day competition earlier this year.
An injury to Ramnaresh Sarwan's right knee has ruled the West Indies vice captain out of this year's one-day tournament and spared the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) of another tricky situation regarding the captaincy.
Sarwan's injury will not require surgery and will give the right-hander some much-needed rest after a gruelling 12 months in which he appeared in 16 Tests, 29 ODIs, six Red Stripe Bowl games and three Carib Beer Cup matches.
Professor Hilary Beckles, known as the University of the West Indies' (UWI) "cricket person", is still spitting fire.
This after learning of the West Indies Cricket Board's (WICB) decision to axe the combined UWI team from the 2004 regional one day tournament set to bowl off on October 16. Beckles told CaribbeanCricket.com that "the university was shocked and horrified by the decision of the WICB. We were surprised...taken off guard, as we had been developing a dialogue with the Board on the need to cater for the education of young cricketers, and forging the bond between cricket and education."