ST. JOHN’S, Antigua – Cricket West Indies (CWI) Men’s Selection Panel today named the squad for the preparation camp ahead of the start of the two-match Cycle Pure Agarbathi Test Series against India in the Caribbean.
Jayden Seales will return to West Indies training following his rehabilitation. The fast bowler last played for West Indies in the first Test at the Perth Stadium, last December. He had knee surgery in December and has subsequently been working on a rehabilitation programme overseen by the CWI Medical Team.
The training squad includes several players who are uncapped at the Test level – including batsmen Alick Athanaze, Kavem Hodge, and Kirk McKenzie; as well as fast bowlers Akeem Jordan, and Jair McAllister.
The camp will be held at the Coolidge Cricket Ground (CCG) in Antigua with training starting on Friday June 29. The squad for the opening Test will be named at a later date and will travel to Dominica on Sunday 9 July.
ST. JOHN’S, Antigua – Cricket West Indies (CWI) hosted the Professional Cricketers draft last Thursday for the Territorial Board Franchises. Each Franchise drafted five players to complete their 15-member squads for an interim three (3) month period ahead of the 2023 CG United Super50 Cup, scheduled to take place in October 2023.
Each team had already retained 10 players and the Professional Cricketers Draft enabled each team to add five players to complete their 15-member squads. The Draft took place over five rounds via a videocall with representatives from all six Territorial Board Franchises. The interim contracts will run from 1 July 2023 to 30 September 2023, with new twelve-month contracts to start from 1 October 2023 to 30 September 2024, following the strategic decision to now align contracts with the CWI Financial Year.
Each Franchise was required to contract two players under the age of 25 as of 1 October 2023 as part of the overall regional programme to ensure playing opportunities for younger and developing players. Franchises will get the opportunity to revise their squads ahead of 1 October once the West Indies International Retainer contracts for the 2023/24 season have been confirmed. All International retained players and umpires have been offered three-month contract extensions to 30 September 2023.
WEST INDIES captain Shai Hope has defended his decision to give all-rounder Jason Holder the super-over, amid criticism of team tactics during his side’s shock defeat to the Netherlands in the ICC World Cup Qualifier on Monday.
After scores were tied at 374 in the Group A contest at the Takashinga Sports Club, the experienced Holder was on the receiving end of a hiding from Logan van Beek, the 31-year-old seamer sending down a poor over, which yielded 30 runs.
Van Beek then took the ball to lead the Dutch side’s defence of the total, inflicting West Indies with a second straight defeat following their loss to Zimbabwe last weekend.
“Hindsight is the best sight. Jason could’ve come and bowled the best over, bowled a maiden and we won the game,” Hope told reporters on Tuesday.
Monday, June 26th will long be remembered by West Indian cricket fans for all the wrong reasons.
Their team, inexplicably, suffered a shock super over defeat to the Netherlands in an ICC World Cup Qualifiers group fixture after failing to defend a mammoth 374.
With a loss like that, questions have been raised about the confidence of the team going into the rest of the qualifiers.
Captain, Shai Hope, answered some of those questions in a press conference on Tuesday.
“Certainly, there’s going to be a lot of pain and hurt in the dressing room but we know that there’s still always a chance for us to move to the next step,” he said.
“We’re always talking about communicating amongst each other and the main thing right now is to get the guys as uplifted as possible to make sure we get the best result going into the next game,” Hope added.
One thing is for certain, people in the Caribbean are not happy with the team’s performance, something Hope says is justified.
A TRIUMPHANT return for Chinelle Henry as well as a memorable debut at home for Zaida James were some of the focal points for the West Indies women starting the ODI series against Ireland in the best way possible.
The West Indies will enter their second ODI series against the Irish this morning starting at 9 at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground, boosted by their 58-run victory in the opening game of the three-match series on Monday, led by a Hayley Matthews century and Henry’s 53 not out.
Henry was playing her first game in three months after being injured during the Women’s T20 World Cup.
“After missing the last three months, it was pretty rough. Coming back here I had the backing of the entire staff and the group of players and everyone just backed me to go and get myself back in and feel how it feels to play cricket again,” Henry told CWI media.
