Injuries may force WI replacements

RECENT injuries to several members of the 22-man squad named by the West Indies cricket selectors to prepare for the upcoming home Test and one-day series may force the naming of replacements. The squad of 22, minus seven players deemed ineligible, was named March 5 to attend a pre-series camp in Barbados from March  23-28. Darren Sammy, the  21-year-old St Lucian  all-rounder, was unable  to bowl in the Windward Islands’ last two matches in the Carib Beer Cup because of a  strained shoulder.  Trinidad and Tobago captain Daren Ganga, the 26-year-old batsman with 30 Tests to his name,  has tennis elbow which forced him to bat down  the order against Barbados last weekend.

Ryan Ramdass, the  21-year-old Guyana opener who forced his way into contention with three hundreds in the Carib Beer Series, has torn ligaments in his ankle that kept him out of last weekend’s match against the Windwards. And Tino Best, the spirited, 23-year-old Barbados fast bowler, strained his side in the match against Trinidad and Tobago last weekend. High noon yesterday was the time set by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) for the question that has thrown the Caribbean into a state of  chaos, confusion  and controversy  to be answered. The WICB were expected yesterday to make a determination on the review by their lawyers of the personal endorsement contracts signed by seven players with Cable and Wireless (C&W).

They are then likely to be in a position to advise the selectors with  respect to the eligibility  of those players.  Whether the squad of 13 for the first Test of the Digicel series against South Africa March 31-April 4 would include incumbent captain Brian Lara and any of the fit five of the other six C&W players (Dwayne Bravo, Fidel Edwards, Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Dwayne Smith) would be known when the squad is announced today.  Ravi Rampaul, the seventh contracted C&W player, has been out of action through injury since last July on the tour of England. Convenor Joey Carew, head coach Bennett King and the two other members of the panel, Gordon Greenidge and Clyde Butts, were in Antigua yesterday to carry out the WICB’s instructions of a week ago to pick the squad.

It would have been incongruous for them to have rushed into completing their assignment while the WICB’s attorneys were still to report on the status of the C&W contracts. “The purpose of the board’s inspection of the contracts is to ensure that the contracts do not impose on the players, any obligations which could cause them, or the WICB, to be in breach of the sponsorship contract which has been executed between the WICB and Digicel,” the WICB explained in a media statement last Saturday. It left the door ajar for the return of the players – Lara, Gayle and Sarwan would be the only certainties for inclusion – if the attorneys find no cause for a breach in the WICB’s US$20 million, four-year contract with Digicel and providing certain conditions are met.