WI suffer third injury setback

BLOEMFONTEIN: Four days before the opening cricket Test against South Africa, the West Indies team’s injury crisis deepened yesterday when Omari Banks became the third player within a week to pull out of the tour.

The off-spin bowler suffered a stress fracture in the back and follows Marlon Samuels and Jerome Taylor back to the Caribbean. “He has a chipped disc in his lower back and that’s going to put him out for three months,” remarked Derek Nicholas, cricket operations officer (regional) of the West Indies Cricket Board. “The injury occurred during the course of the first warm-up match in South Africa against Free State and arrangements are being made for him to return to the Caribbean during the course of this week.”

While left-arm chinaman bowler Dave Mohammed will replace Taylor, and all-rounder Dwayne Smith will take Samuels’ place, no decision has yet been taken on Banks’ replacement. “The selectors are consulting about whether a replacement will be named or whether to hold off and make it a 15-member squad for the time being,” Nicholas said. Things got so bad for West Indies on Sunday against Free State that coach Gus Logie, aged 43, had to relive his youthful days when he was one of the game’s brightest fielders and twice was pressed into service as a substitute.

Vasbert Drakes is still nursing the side strain that has prevented him from playing for the last two weeks, and fellow fast bowler Corey Collymore had treatment on what team manager Ricky Skerritt described as “a slight hamstring strain.”